Nearly 1,000 people detained from online scam centres in Karen State handed over to Thailand, China

Nearly 1,000 foreign nationals who were allegedly working in online gambling and scam centres in Karen State’s Myawaddy Township, were handed over to Thai and Chinese authorities on Thursday by the Border Guard Force (BGF) active in the area. The BGF, which has long acted as a Myanmar military proxy, brought a total of 997 people, most of whom were Chinese, across the No. 2 Friendship Bridge connecting Myawaddy with Mae Sot in Thailand’s Tak Province. Maj Naing Maung Zaw of the BGF stated that they had already transferred 150 people back to their home countries on Wednesday and that 368 more were set to be repatriated on Thursday by Thailand through the Mae Sot airport. “Thailand will be serving as a ‘host’ country and then send the prisoners back to China as the majority of them were Chinese,” the major said. The hundreds of people in question were believed to be working—against their will—in Shwe Kokko, a gambling city 10 miles north of Myawaddy, as well as the village of May Htaw Talay and KK Park. Shwe Kokko has been linked to reports of widespread human trafficking and is jointly operated by notorious and internationally sanctioned BGF commander Saw Chit Thu’s Chit Lin Myaing Company and the Hong Kong-registered Yatai International Holding Group. An article in Thai media outlet Khaosod English reported that 997 Chinese nationals were being brought across the border to Thailand by the “Myanmar government.” Saw Khin Maung Myint, the junta-appointed commerce minister and spokesperson for the military’s Karen State cabinet, told Myanmar Now that the people in question were “illegal immigrants” and that they were captured while working at construction sites, casinos, and internet gambling centres. “Some were arrested at the casinos. Some of them illegally migrated and were staying here illegally. Some made up excuses like they were trafficked,” Saw Khin Maung Myint said. “The truth is we don’t know how they got here. We caught them in Myawaddy and it led to a chain of more than 1,000 arrests in Shwe Kokko.” He noted that the people had been sent across the No. 2 Friendship Bridge to Thailand due to difficulties transporting them elsewhere in the region. It is reportedly the first time that the military has publicly transferred detainees using that route. “It’s impossible to send them directly to China from Myawaddy, so we made a deal with the Thai government,” he said. The military council declared in early February that it would eliminate online fraud operations on the Thai-Myanmar border, where thousands of people are believed to be confined in casinos and scam centres in townships such as Myawaddy and Tachileik, in eastern Shan State. The junta raided such centres in Tachileik on the morning of February 23, arresting hundreds of people and seizing motorcycles and computers. In January, the BGF in Karen State withdrew hundreds of troops from a shared base with the Myanmar army, raising questions about shifting loyalties at the time. The soldiers were believed to have been transferred to Shwe Kokko, to fortify the BGF’s defences around the city. The move followed an announcement by BGF commander Saw Chit Thu that he would no longer accept financial support from the junta and declared his group as “neutral.”

Nearly 1,000 people detained from online scam centres in Karen State handed over to Thailand, China

The foreign nationals, mostly from China, are brought across the border to Thailand by the Border Guard Force that operates in Myawaddy Township

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