Thai, Myanmar authorities target scam centres near Myawaddy by cutting off fuel

Residents of Myawaddy Township, a known nest of cybercrime on Karen State’s border with Thailand, said that there were acute shortages this week as the Thai government and Myanmar junta blocked the movement of fuel and other goods to the area. Nearly all fuelling stations in Myawaddy are closed, with only one Petro Seven station in Myawaddy still selling petrol and diesel to local people in rationed amounts. Long lines of vehicles have begun crossing the border into Mae Sot, Thailand to buy fuel, one man in Myawaddy said. Sellers are now asking as much as 40,000 kyat (US $19) per litre of petrol on the black market, according to the same source, as compared with 3,200 kyat (US $1.50) per litre, the standard price in Yangon. Other sources said that 220-litre barrels of petrol were selling to Chinese businesses around the Myawaddy area for as much as 20,000 to 30,000 Thai baht (equivalent to several million Myanmar kyat or US $590 to $880), or up to $4 to the litre. “The price for Chinese businesses is different. Most people are just reselling whatever fuel they can get on the black market,” the man living in Myawaddy said. Thailand and the Myanmar junta have also restricted the shipment of propane cylinders, solar panels, and batteries to Myawaddy, only allowing food and a few other consumer goods into the township. The price of a propane cylinder, normally around 25,000 kyat (US $12), has now risen to 45,000 kyat (US $22), the same resident told Myanmar Now. Within Myanmar, military authorities have also stopped shipments of fuel from Karen State’s Hpa-an and Mon State’s Mawlamyine townships into Myawaddy. They have gone so far as to confiscate extra fuel containers found in private vehicles, according to a local man who spoke with Myanmar Now from Kawkareik, a town west of Myawaddy in Karen State. "You could say Myawaddy’s fuel purchases are blocked from all sides now. The military council, Border Guard Force, and Thai side have all shut it off,” he said. Led by Colonel Saw Chit Thu, he Karen Border Guard Force (Karen BGF) is an armed group that sometimes collaborates with the Myanmar military and exercises de facto authority over much of Myawaddy Township. The group and its leadership, including Col. Saw Chit Thu and his immediate family, have allegedly been directly involved in creating, running, or profiting from the scam centres in Karen State. He added that, while some border checkpoints operated extralegally by the Karen BGF have blocked civilian vehicles from transporting fuel, the Karen BGF may still be importing and distributing fuel needed for Chinese-backed construction projects at Shwe Kokko and KK Park. “They allow cars to be filled up completely. But they don’t let you transport large amounts in barrels into Shwe Kokko anymore,” he said of the BGF. “Their troops might transport it with their vehicles, but civilian vehicles can’t.” Despite the Thai government’s decision to cut off the Myawaddy-based scam compounds’ electricity supply, the criminal enterprises may continue to operate. A Myawaddy resident claimed that, as the fuel prices and shortages have impacted smaller scam operations near Myawaddy, some have simply closed down and relocated their workers across the border to Thailand, but Myanmar Now has yet to verify this claim independently. On Friday, three days after Thai authorities disconnected Myawaddy’s electrical supply, a trafficking victim from Kenya in his 30s escaped from a scam centre in Myawaddy, fleeing to the Thai side of the border and telling his story to Thailand-based media. The man, who said he had lived through abuse and forced labour, claimed nearly 1,000 people were being subjected to the same kind of torture in the same Chinese-backed scam operation, including Bangladeshi, Cambodian, Ethiopian, Kenyan, Pakistani, and Sri Lankan nationals. Most online scam operations in Karen State—which have become notorious for the trafficking, extortion, and coercion of their workers as well as online fraud—have been run from compounds in Shwe Kokko and KK Park near Myawaddy. However, there are more cybercrime networks operating out of Three Pagodas Pass (Payathonzu) in Karen State’s Kyainseikgyi District some 90 miles south of Myawaddy, as well as in the town of Tachileik, eastern Shan State on the border with Thailand’s Chiang Rai Province. The areas where scam operations thrive are controlled not by the Myanmar junta but by various armed groups, including the Karen BGF and Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA)—sometime allies of the military—and anti-junta groups like Karen National Liberation Army/Karen National Union (KNU). The KNU, BGF, and DKBA have all denied being involved in or aiding the cybercrime operations. In a statement issued on February 9 regarding scam centres in Three Pagodas Pass—which is effectively under DKBA control—DKBA commander Colonel Saw A Wan demanded that all Chinese nationals illegally running gaming centres, casinos, and other businesses leave their territory by February 28. Chinese businessmen have previously been heavily involved in launching illegal casinos and scam centres around Myawaddy and the town of Laukkai in northern Shan State.

Thai, Myanmar authorities target scam centres near Myawaddy by cutting off fuel

The blockade, which affects fuel shipments from within Myanmar as well as Thailand, comes a few days after Thailand’s government cut off the supply of electricity to the notorious cybercrime compounds near the border

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