About 7,000 people have been rescued from illegal call centre operations in Myanmar and were waiting to be transferred to Thailand, prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said on Wednesday.
Thailand launched a large-scale crackdown on scam centres operating on the border.
The prime minister’s announcement came after Thai police said they were preparing to receive up to 10,000 foreigners rescued from a network of notorious scam centres, The Guardian reported.
Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, which share borders with Thailand, have in recent years become havens for transnational crime syndicates operating online scam operations, including romance scams, bogus investments and illegal gambling.
“It’s massive and there are thousands of people in there that have been brought in, typically through Thailand, so it’s a huge move if they clean the compounds and scams out,” said Jeremy Douglas, from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), ahead of the PM’s confirmation.
Myanmar’s border area of Myawaddy, where foreign nationals are expected to be released, has among the largest single cluster of scam compounds in the region, and possibly the world, said Douglas.
bd-pratidin/GR
