(17 Feb 2025)
RESTRICTIONS SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Myawaddy, Myanmar – 17 February 2025
1. Various of workers believed to have been rescued from several cyber scam centres, awaiting repatriation
2. SOUNDBITE (English) name not given, rescued worker:
"(We) don’t have our cell phones, we need to talk to our family that we are coming home and we have no contact with them yet. But I think we can go home as soon as possible and that will be really good for us."
3. Various of Chinese Assistant Minister of Public Security, Liu Zhongyi, visiting rescued workers
4. Wide of leader of Myanmar’s Karen Border Guard Force (BGF), Saw Chit Thu, speaking to media
5. SOUNDBITE (Burmese) Saw Chit Thu, leader of Karen Border Guard Force:
"We absolutely do not accept this (human trafficking and torture). I absolutely do not accept human trafficking and torture, and I am currently making arrests and have sent them (rescued workers) back to the Thai military and the Thai police."
6. Various of rescued workers
STORYLINE:
Hundreds of workers from online scam centres in Myanmar have been rescued by authorities in the Myawaddy district near the Thai border, ahead of an expected large-scale repatriation operation.
Areas of Myanmar bordering Thailand have been serving as havens for criminal syndicates employing hundreds of thousands of people from Southeast Asia and elsewhere who help carry out online scams including false romantic ploys, bogus investment pitches and illegal gambling schemes.
Such scams have cost victims around the world tens of billions of dollars, while the people recruited to carry them out have often been tricked into taking the jobs under false pretences and find themselves trapped in virtual slavery.
Under a large canopy with artificial green flooring, hundreds of rescued workers sat or lay on the ground on Monday as they waited to return home.
One worker, whose name and nationality were not given, said he needed to talk to his family to tell them he was coming home, but did not have his cell phone.
"I think we can go home as soon as possible and that will be really good for us," he said.
Efforts to shut down the scam centres in Myanmar appeared to gain momentum on Monday, as a top Chinese security official also visited both sides of the Thai-Myanmar border, and was seen speaking to rescued workers.
Liu Zhongyi, China’s Vice Minister of Public Security and Commissioner of its Criminal Investigation Bureau, appeared on the Myawaddy side in an apparent visit to a location belonging to the Border Guard Forces, a militia force of the country’s Karen ethnic minority.
The location is where hundreds of people are believed to have been rounded up from several scam centres.
The Bangkok Post newspaper reported that an initial batch of about 600 Chinese nationals were among those rescued from scam centres, and are expected to be flown back to China on chartered flights when Liu concludes his visit.
The leader of Myanmar’s Karen Border Guard Force (BGF), Saw Chit Thu, spoke to the media on Monday, saying he did not support "human trafficking and torture", and that he was making arrests and sending the rescued workers back to the Thai military and police.
The Thai government has issued an order to cut off electricity, internet and gas supplies to several areas in Myanmar along the border with northern Thailand, citing national security and severe damage that the country has suffered from scam operations.
Thai officials have said as many as 7,000-10,000 more people may be repatriated.
Ap video shot by Chiravut Roogjumrusrussamee
Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/
You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/b4bac860e07e409a8de71afa9d02572d
Author: AP Archive
Go to Source
News post in February 22, 2025, 3:04 pm.
Visit Our Sponsor’s:
News Post In – News
