More than 600 suspected scammers, most of them Chinese nationals, have been camping out since Wednesday on the bank of the Moei River in Myanmar, opposite Mae Sot district of Thailand’s Tak province, after they had escaped a crackdown on online call centres in the Shwe Kokko ‘scam city’ in Myawaddy province.
The escapees, many of whom were seen with their luggage, reportedly shouted appeals to the Thai border troops to allow them to cross the river and seek temporary refuge on Thai territory.
The Thai troops and local officials have rejected their requests.
Border security has been tightened since Myanmar government forces and their allied Karen troops launched attacks against scam centres in KK Park and Shwe Kokko, forcing hundreds of suspected scammers, of multiple nationalities, to attempt to flee into Mae Sot district.
Numerous suspected scammers, who previously escaped to Thailand for temporary refuge, have subsequently tried to sneak into Cambodia to work in scam centres there.
