BANGKOK, NOV 25 – A total of 39 foreigners today successfully escaped from an online fraud center in Myanmar and crossed the border into Thailand.
Thai authorities are now trying to identify potential victims of human trafficking, police said AFP today.
Online fraud operations are on the rise in Myanmar’s border region, often involving foreigners who are trafficked and forced into labor, defrauding their fellow countrymen in what analysts say is a multibillion-dollar industry.
The group, consisting of Sri Lankans, Nepalese, Malaysians and Russians, crossed into Thailand’s Tak province, according to the Chief of Police in the Thai city of Mae Sot, Colonel Pittayakorn Petcharat.
They fled Myawaddy, an area across the border, which is controlled by militias allied with the army and is known as a center for drug production and online fraud operations, according to observers.
The Sri Lankan embassy in Bangkok asked the Thai authorities for help after being informed that 32 of its citizens were trapped in Myanmar, Pittayakorn said.
In addition, five Nepalese nationals, one Malaysian national and one Russian national were also in the group that managed to escape and arrived in Thailand.
The group crossed into Thailand last night, according to a member of the security forces in Mae Sot, who declined to be identified. Immigration officials are now identifying potential victims of human trafficking, Pittayakorn added.
Local Thai media reported that the group had been lured by ads on social media promising high-paying jobs, but ended up being forced to work in difficult conditions by the fraud syndicate. – AFP