Photo Essay: Hundreds rescued from Myanmar’s cybercrime syndicates as Thailand begins mass repatriation

In a major development at the Thailand-Myanmar border, authorities transferred around 200 trafficked Chinese nationals from Myanmar's Shwe Kokko to Thailand on Thursday. The survivors had been forced to work for illegal online scam operations, run by Chinese syndicates that trafficked them. Thai news outlets confirm that these individuals have arrived in Thailand and will be flown from Mae Sot to China. Their transfer follows a series of rescues from the notorious Shwe Kokko area, a hub for human trafficking and online fraud. On February 12, the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA), a Karen armed group operating near the Thai border, returned 260 foreign nationals who had been trapped in Shwe Kokko’s online scam operations.Furthermore, on February 6, the Karen Border Guard Force (BGF), a Karen paramilitary group aligned with Myanmar’s military, handed over 61 trafficked individuals to Thai authorities.The Thai government expects the transfer of over 2,000 trafficked foreigners, including those involved in the illegal online scam networks of Shwe Kokko and KK Park in Myawaddy in the coming days. Members of the Karen Border Guard Force (BGF) take part in a crackdown operation on illicit activity linked to scam centres in Shwe Kokko in Myanmar's eastern Myawaddy township on February 18, 2025. (Photo by AFP) Alleged scam centre workers and survivors sit next to dismantled IT and electronic appliances during a crackdown operation by the Karen Border Guard Force (BGF) on illicit activity in Shwe Kokko in Myanmar's eastern Myawaddy township on February 18, 2025. Battered and bruised Chinese workers from online scam centres in Myanmar faced an anxious wait to be returned home, as Beijing and Thailand on February 19 finalised plans for their repatriation. (Photo by AFP) Hundreds of trafficking survivors boarded buses at the Thai-Myanmar border following a raid and the transfer of foreign nationals forced into cybercrime in Shwe Kokko, Myanmar. (Myat Thiha / Myanmar Now) A Chinese repatriation plane is pictured at Mae Sot International Airport, Tak Province, Thailand. The flight is one of many that is scheduled to transport hundreds of survivors of forced cyber-crime labor from Karen State’s Myawaddy Township. (Myat Thiha / Myanmar Now) Trafficking survivors from Shwe Koko, Myawaddy Township, arrive by bus before departing on a repatriation flight to China. (Myat Thiha / Myanmar Now)

Photo Essay: Hundreds rescued from Myanmar’s cybercrime syndicates as Thailand begins mass repatriation

The operation is the latest in a series of rescues, freeing hundreds from modern-day slavery and sending them home at last

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