Hundreds of foreigners freed from Myanmar’s scam centres

More than 250 people were released out of 20 nationalities who worked in stadiums in communications in Myanmar by an ethnic armed group and were brought to Thailand.

The workers, more than half of them from African or Asian countries, have been received by the Thai army, and they are evaluated to see if they are victims of human trafficking.

Last week, Thai Prime Minister Paitongtarn Shinawatra met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and promised to close the fraud centers that spread along the Thai border.

Her government stopped reaching power and fuel from the Thai side from the border, and tightened banking and visa rules to try to prevent fraud operators from using Thailand as a transit country to transport workers and criticism.

Some opposition deputies in Thailand are pushing for this type of work over the past two years.

Foreign workers are usually seduced by these fraud centers with good salaries, or in some cases they are deceived to believe that they will do a different job in Thailand, not Myanmar.

Budgets are looking for workers who have skills in the languages ​​of those who target the electronic lawsuit, and is usually the English and Chinese.

They are clicked in a criminal activity online, from love fraud known as “pig slaughtering” and coding, to laundering money and illegal gambling.

Some are ready to do the work, but others are forced to stay, with a release only if their families pay a large ransom. Some of those who escaped described torture.

Foreign workers who were released by the Karen Democratic Army, DKBA, one of the numerous armed factions that control lands within the state of Karen.

These armed groups were accused of allowing fraud vehicles to work under their protection, and tolerance with the extensive abuse of victims who are forced to work in vehicles.

The government of Myanmar has not been able to expand its control over most of Karen’s state since independence in 1948.

On Tuesday, the Special Investigation Ministry of Thailand, which resembles the FBI in the United States, requested the arrest orders of three leaders from another armed group known as the National Army Karen.

Shahit Thu orders included war agents Karen, who concluded a deal in 2017 with a Chinese company to build Shui Coco, a new city believed to be very funded by fraud.

BBC Shui Coco visited the invitation of YatayThe company that built the city.

Yatai says there are no more fraud in Shui Coco. Huge advertising paintings have been developed throughout the city, in Chinese, Burmese and English, that forced work is not permitted, and that “online companies” should leave.

But we were told by the local population that fraud works are still working, and an interview with a worker was working in one.

Like DKBA, Chit Thu saw away from the main Karen rebel group, The Knu, in 1994, and allied with the Myanmar army.

Under the pressure from Thailand and China, both of them saw Shit Thu and DKBA that they were expelling fraud from their lands.

DKBA captain called Thai members in Parliament on Tuesday to arrange the delivery of 260 workers.

Among them are 221 men and 39 women, from Ethiopia, Kenya, the Philippines, Malaysia, Pakistan, China, Indonesia, Taiwan, Nepal, Uganda, Laos, Burundi, Brazil, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Tanzania, Sir Lanka, India, Ghana, Cambodia and Cambodia.