BANGKOK: Thailand has in the last week helped facilitate the transfer of some 900 Chinese nationals who had been trapped in scam centres in a Myanmar border town back to China, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said on Sunday.
Southeast Asia, including Myanmar, has become a hub for telecom and other online fraud, according to the United Nations, with hundreds of thousands of people trafficked by criminal gangs and forced to work in scam centres and other illegal operations.
The operation, which Thai police say started last Thursday and was completed on Saturday, involved transporting the Chinese nationals from Myanmar’s bonder town of Myawaddy to an airport in the Thai border district of Mae Sot, where they were transferred to Chinese planes.
“This was a joint voluntary operation between three countries, China, Myanmar and Thailand,” Prime Minister Srettha said.
“The process was done voluntarily, based on humanitarian principles, it was not forced,” Srettha said, adding that Thailand had facilitated the transfer to the flights at Mae Sot.
Thai deputy police chief Surachae Hakparn said the operation involved 15 flights over three days to return Chinese scam victims to China.
The Chinese foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Myanmar’s military spokesperson also did not respond to a call seeking comment.
Crew members of NGO rescue ship 'Ocean Viking' give lifejackets to migrants on an overcrowded boat in the...
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, at a parliamentary inquiry on Wednesday, said Canada had ‘clear... indications that...
Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump is being covered by the Secret Service after...
People wait for a food distribution in a displaced persons camp at the Lycée Marie Jeanne in Port-au-Prince on...
Former Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina accepts greetings from the assembled media and election observers...
Chinese President Xi Jinping attends a presentation ceremony of national medals and honorary titles, at the Great Hall...