In a massive repatriation that coincides with a growing crackdown on scam centers operating along a porous border, Thailand’s army announced Thursday that it has received 260 human trafficking victims from Myanmar, more than half of whom are Ethiopians.
The UN claims that criminal gangs have trafficked hundreds of thousands of people and coerced them into working for illicit online businesses that make billions of dollars every year throughout Southeast Asia, particularly along the Thai-Myanmar border.
The Thai army released a statement stating, “After screening the group and verifying their nationalities, it was found that there were 20 nationalities,” of which 138 were Ethiopians.
Thai authorities stepped up their efforts last month after Chinese actor Wang Xing was kidnapped in Thailand and lured in with the promise of an acting job, despite the fact that these illicit operations have been going on for years.
When Thai police discovered him in Myanmar, they later released him.
As soldiers watched, a sizable contingent of trafficking victims who had been returned from Myanmar’s Myawaddy region were spotted crossing the Moei River into Thailand on Wednesday. There, they were led onto Thai military vehicles.
Located along the Thai border, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army is a rebel group from Myanmar that claims to have located about 260 individuals from unidentified “businesses” when its members searched for forced labor in areas they control.
“We don’t know how they got here,” the outfit’s chief of staff Major Saw San Aung told Reuters. “We are continuing the search of forced labour, and we will send them back.”
Thailand earlier this month cut electricity, fuel and internet supply to parts of Myanmar where the illegal compounds operate, reflecting growing unease in Bangkok over the impact of scam centres on the vital tourism sector.