China begins repatriation of more than 1,000 online scam workers rescued from Myanmar

A bus, believed to be carrying Chinese nationals, crosses the 2nd Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge in Mae Sot in Thailand’s Tak province

An airlift carrying more than 1,000 Chinese nationals who had worked at online scam centers in eastern Myanmar began yesterday, after the rescued workers were taken across the border to Thailand and put on chartered flights to China.

Thailand, China and Myanmar have coordinated efforts over the past month to shut down the scam centers that bilked victims around the world out of billions of dollars through false romantic ploys, bogus investment pitches and illegal gambling schemes.

Hundreds of thousands of people from Southeast Asia and elsewhere are estimated to have worked at such centers in Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, and many were recruited under false pretenses for other jobs and found themselves trapped in virtual slavery.

Thai officials said recently that as many as 10,000 people may be repatriated from Myanmar from the online scam centers.

So far, 16 flights, or about four a day, have been scheduled to repatriate the Chinese nationals, accompanied by police. Because of the large number of Chinese — the projected number so far is 1,041 — Thailand is allowing Beijing to handle most of their processing and investigations on their return to China.

Thai officials told reporters yesterday the rescued workers were being taken in batches of 50 across a bridge from Myanmar’s Myawaddy to Thailand’s Mae Sot, where they were processed — including with biometric scans — and sent on by bus to Mae Sot’s airport.

There they boarded China Southern Airlines planes, whose destination was shown by flight tracking websites as Jinghong in southwestern China’s Yunnan province.

Thai authorities are overseeing the evacuation and processing of scam center workers from other nations. Last week, some 260 people from 20 nations, including many from Africa, crossed from Myanmar into Thai custody after they were reportedly rescued from scam centers.

The organized repatriation of freed scam workers from nations other than China will begin on Sunday, Thai PBS reported.

Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra on a visit to Beijing earlier this month told Chinese leader Xi Jinping that Thailand would crack down on the scam networks. MDT/AP