More than 250 people rescued from online scam centres in Myanmar were handed over to Thailand on Wednesday, a senior Thai army official said, following a series of crackdowns on the illegal operations.
Scam compounds have mushroomed in Myanmar’s borderlands and are staffed by foreigners who are often trafficked and forced to work, swindling their compatriots in an industry analysts say is worth billions of dollars.
The group released on Wednesday had been working at a scam centre in Kyauk Khet, a village in Karen (Kayin) State along the Thai-Myanmar border, according to the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, a Myanmar insurgent group that controls the area.
After being taken by boat across a small border river, they were dropped off in Phop Phra, about 19 miles south of Mae Sot on the Thai side of the border, an AFP journalist saw.
“There are currently 261 [people], but the. . .
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