Thousands of foreigners are expected to be repatriated from Myanmar in the coming weeks, starting with hundreds of Chinese nationals over the next three days.
The compounds are run by criminal gangs and staffed by foreigners, many of whom say they were trafficked and forced to swindle people around the world in protracted internet scams.
Many of those involved in the scam farms are Chinese, and Beijing has stepped up pressure on Myanmar and Thailand to shut the operations down.
Two double-decker coaches delivered a first group of workers across the border from Myanmar to an airport in the western Thai town of Mae Sot on Thursday morning.
Dozens of people, seemingly all men, boarded a special China Southern Airlines plane directly from the buses, mounting the steps after being checked by an official with a clipboard.
The plane took off shortly after 11:30 am (0430 GMT), landing in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing in the afternoon, state broadcaster CCTV said.
Three more flights followed, ferrying a total of 200 back to China.
"In the coming days, an additional 800 or so Chinese nationals suspected of fraud-related crimes are expected to be escorted back to China," CCTV added.
Thai officials gave a lower figure, saying a total of 600 more Chinese would be repatriated on further charter flights from Mae Sot over Friday and Saturday.
It is not clear what fate awaits them, but Chinese police accompanied the returnees on the planes, according to Beijing's Ministry of Public Security, which referred to them as "suspects" rather than victims.
A report on the CGTN state broadcaster showed the returnees, handcuffed and dressed in brown jumpsuits, being frogmarched off the plane, a police officer on each arm.
Asked about the deportations on Thursday, Beijing's foreign ministry referred reporters to the "relevant authorities" for details.
"The resolute crackdown on online gambling and telecom fraud is a concrete manifestation of implementing a development philosophy centred on the people," ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said at a regular press briefing.
"It is also an imperative choice to safeguard the common interests of regional countries," Guo said.
The Karen Border Guard Force (BGF), a militia allied with the Myanmar junta, says it will deport 10,000 people linked to compounds in areas it controls on the border with Thailand.
"Two hundred Chinese nationals involved in online gambling, telecom fraud, and other crimes were handed over in accordance with legal procedures through Thailand this morning, in the spirit of humanitarianism and friendship between countries," the Myanmar junta said in a statement.
Thai Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said that after the first round of 600 Chinese were returned, further talks would be needed between Thailand, China and Myanmar to organise more repatriations.
- Beatings -
The release follows several visits by China's Public Security Assistant Minister Liu Zhongyi to both Bangkok and the border in recent weeks to arrange the repatriation.
Scam centres have proliferated across Southeast Asia in recent years, including in Cambodia and the Philippines, as the value of the industry has ballooned to billions of dollars a year.
Many workers say they were lured or tricked by promises of high-paying jobs before they were effectively held hostage, their passports taken from them while they were forced to commit online fraud.
Many have said they suffered beatings and other abuse at the hands of their supervisors, and AFP has interviewed numerous workers freed from centres with severe bruising and burns.
A local Myanmar militia last week handed over 260 scam centre workers from a dozen countries, including the Philippines, Ethiopia, Brazil and Nepal, to Thailand.
Philippine police arrest over 450 in 'Chinese-run' scam centre raid
Manila (AFP) Feb 21, 2025 -
Philippine police arrested more than 450 people in a raid on an allegedly Chinese-run offshore gaming operator in Manila, the country's anti-organised crime commission has said.
Initial interrogations suggested the suburban site had been operating as a scam centre, targeting victims in China and India with sports betting and investment schemes, the commission said after the Thursday raid, which saw 137 Chinese nationals detained.
"We arrested around five Chinese bosses," commission chief Gilberto Cruz told AFP on Friday, adding they faced potential trafficking charges.
Banned by President Ferdinand Marcos last year, Philippine online gaming operators, or POGOs, are said to be used as cover by organised crime groups for human trafficking, money laundering, online fraud, kidnappings and even murder.
"This raid proves that the previous POGO workers are still trying to continue their scamming activities despite the ban," Cruz said.
He previously told AFP that about 21,000 Chinese nationals have continued to operate smaller-scale scam operations in the country since the online gaming ban.
International concern has grown in recent years over similar scam operations in other Asian nations that are often staffed by trafficking victims tricked or coerced into promoting bogus cryptocurrency investments and other cons.
President Marcos has put POGOs at the centre of recent campaign messaging in the run-up to May mid-term elections, framing predecessor Rodrigo Duterte's alleged tolerance of the sites as evidence of a too-cozy relationship with China.
Thursday's raid is the latest in a series of busts this year, including one in January that saw around 400 foreigners arrested in the capital, including many Chinese nationals.
The Washington-based think tank United States Institute of Peace said in a May 2024 report that online scammers target millions of victims around the world and rake in annual revenues of $64 billion.
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