BANGKOK (news agencies) — Efforts to shut down online scam centers in Myanmar appeared to gain momentum on Monday as a top Chinese security official visited both sides of the Thai-Myanmar border ahead of expected large-scale repatriations of workers in the illicit industry.
The visit by Liu Zhongyi, China’s vice minister of public security and commissioner of the Criminal Investigation Bureau, was part of a stepped-up effort by the three countries to address the online scam problem, Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai told reporters.
Areas of Myanmar bordering Thailand have been serving as havens for criminal syndicates employing an estimated hundreds of thousands of people from Southeast Asia and elsewhere who help carry out online scams including false romantic ploys, bogus investment pitches and illegal gambling schemes.
Such scams have cost victims around the world tens of billions of dollars, while the people recruited to carry them out have often been tricked into taking the jobs under false pretenses and find themselves trapped in virtual slavery.
Last week, some 260 people from 20 nations, including many from Africa, crossed from Myanmar into Thailand after they were reportedly rescued from scam centers.
On a visit to China in early February, Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra vowed along with China’s leader Xi Jinping to crack down on the scam networks. Just ahead of her visit, Thailand cut off electricity, internet and gas supplies to several areas in Myanmar along the border, citing national security and severe damage that Thailand has suffered from scam operations.
The repatriations of foreign workers from Myanmar have been organized by the Border Guard Force in Myawaddy, a militia of the Karen ethnic minority that exercises control over the area. However, critics have accused it of being involved in the criminal activities, at least to the extent of providing protection to the scam centers.
The group’s leader, Saw Chit Thu, denied in a news conference on Monday that his group was involved in scam activities, but acknowledged business links to some properties hosting the centers, which he said initially operated simply as resorts.
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