Scam hubs on Thai-Myanmar border still have up to 100,000 people, Thai police says

By Panu Wongcha-um and Panarat Thepgumpanat

(Reuters) - Despite a weeks-long multinational crackdown, scam centres along the Thai-Myanmar border are still operating with up to 100,000 people working there, the top police general leading Thailand's operations against the fraud compounds told Reuters.

Thailand is fronting a regional effort to dismantle scam centres along its borders, which are part of a Southeast Asian network of illegal facilities that generate billions of dollars every year, often using people trafficked there by criminal gangs, according to the United Nations.

Based on early assessments of some of the 5,000 people pulled out of sprawling scam hubs in Myanmar's Myawaddy area, hundreds went there voluntarily, said Police General Thatchai Pitaneelaboot, calling for careful investigations among nationals of over a dozen countries to winnow out criminals.

"Many people use Thailand as a pathway to sneak themselves into Myawaddy to find work, and this is not just the call centre gangs but also online gambling work and other professions," Thatchai said in an interview.

His comments run counter to widespread reports that scam centre workers in and around Myawaddy were victims, lured to go there by criminal bosses.

Jason Tower, an analyst with the U.S. Institute of Peace and an expert on regional scam centres, said that many people who willingly travelled to areas such as Myawaddy were trapped in conducting scamming operations.

"Many did go in willingly, only discovering that they had been trafficked later," he said.

Several former scam workers describe being trapped in the compounds, where they were forced to trick strangers online into transferring large amounts of money, often pretending to be romantic interests.

Although these scam centres have operated for years, they came under renewed scrutiny following the abduction of a Chinese actor Wang Xing in Thailand in January, who was later rescued from Myawaddy.

The incident sparked a social media firestorm in China, and Beijing dispatched officials to Thailand to coordinate operations targeted at breaking up scam hubs like Myawaddy and rescuing scores of its citizens, many of whom now have been flown home.

"Since the Wang Xing case, there were 3,600 foreigners who travelled Mae Sot, and we did not find one who was tricked or coerced to come," Thatchai said, citing information gathered by police checkpoints set up in the Thai district bordering Myawaddy.

Among some 260 people from 20 nationalities who were sent from Myawaddy to Thailand in February as the crackdown gathered steam, most were not coerced, according to initial investigations conducted by Thai authorities, Thatchai said.

"These people went there voluntarily," Thatchai said, adding that he is waiting on information from countries including China and India that have repatriated hundreds of their nationals on whether they had been trafficked to scam centres in Myawaddy.

MULTINATIONAL COORDINATION

Thatchai said the crackdown so far has only affected a fraction of the vast operations in Myawaddy, which lies across a narrow river from the Thai town of Mae Sot.

"It could be up to 50,000 or 100,000 people that are still left because we are still seeing their operations," he said, based on Thai police intelligence as well as information gathered by Chinese authorities, who have identified at least 3,700 criminals continuing to operate in the area.

Since February, more than 5,200 people have been extricated from scamming facilities in and around Myawaddy, according to Thai police citing Myanmar authorities. Over 3,500 have been sent back to their home countries via Thailand, which has also cut off electricity, internet and fuel supplies to the area.

With scam workers hailing from a wide range of countries, Thatchai said he is pushing for a multinational coordination centre to repatriate, investigate and share information to prosecute criminals involved in the fraud operations.

Suspected criminals extricated from Myawaddy and other scam hubs should be prosecuted in their home countries, and the Thai police are ready to help wherever necessary, Thatchai said.

The main focus of Thai authorities currently is to help coordinate the return of scam centre victims to their home countries, with thousands of former workers still stuck in limbo on the Thai-Myanmar border, including some who are struggling to find their way back because of a lack of funds.

"We have to discharge people as quickly as possible," Thatchai said. "So that the Myanmar authorities and ethnic armed groups can conduct more crackdowns."

(Reporting by Panu Wongcha-um and Panarat Thepgumpanat, Editing by Devjyot Ghoshal and Saad Sayeed)