More than a thousand people, mostly Chinese and Indian nationals, fled Myanmar’s government crackdown on transnational scam networks in KK Park, a notorious scam center in Myawaddy, into Mae Sot district of Thailand’s Tak province yesterday, and the number is rising.
The escapees are being housed in four temporary shelters in Mae Sot for screening by Thai police and local administration officials, to determine whether they worked voluntarily in scam call centres or are victims lured by attractive job offers and who were then forced to work as scammers.
The sources say that all the foreigners are being provided with food and water, while they await questioning and screening by Thai officials.
The sources anticipate that more people are expected to flee across the border today and over the weekend, as Myanmar government forces and their Karen allies plan another raid on KK Park.
Several escapees are reported to have drowned as they tried to swim across the Moei River, which is the natural demarcation line between Thailand and Myanmar.
Pol Maj-Gen Cherngron Rimphadee, spokesman for the Royal Thai Police, said a biometric system is being used to check the backgrounds of all the escapees, adding that most of them are Chinese, aged between 20 and 45, and do not have passports. The rest are citizens of Vietnam, India, Pakistan, Indonesia and the Philippines.
He said that those found to have been working as scammers voluntarily will face criminal charges.
People from various countries, who were working in the KK Park compound in Myanmar and crossed to Thailand via the Moei river, sit with their belongings as investigations by Thai officials are underway in Mae Sot District, Tak Province area on October 24.//AFP
People from various countries, who were working in the KK Park compound in Myanmar, travel in a boat across the Moei river to cross over from Myanmar to Thailand.//AFP
