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MAE SOT, Thailand (Reuters) -A group of 200 Chinese nationals plucked from scam centres in Myanmar crossed into Thailand and were flown home on Thursday, as part of a multinational effort to repatriate hundreds caught up in massive internet fraud schemes, a senior Thai minister said.
For years, criminal gangs have trafficked hundreds of thousands of people to scam compounds across Southeast Asia, including sites on the Thai-Myanmar frontier, forcing them to work in illegal online operations, the United Nations says.
An initial group of 50 Chinese nationals crossed into Thailand at Mae Sot early on Thursday, guarded by armed soldiers and military vehicles mounted with machine guns, from the town of Myawaddy in Myanmar, an area flanked by compounds that run the scams.
A total of 600 Chinese nationals from these scam centres will be sent home via Thailand this week, Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said.
"Cooperation between the three countries is essential for this operation" he told reporters, adding that officials from China, Thailand and Myanmar will meet on the issue next week.
Beijing is "actively cooperating bilaterally and multilaterally" with Thailand, Myanmar and other countries to eliminate illegal online operations, Guo Jiakun, a spokesperson of its foreign ministry, said on Thursday.
The Mae Sot arrivals were part of a renewed effort by Thailand to dismantle the compounds with Beijing's backing, following the rescue of Chinese actor Wang Xing, who went missing there after being promised an acting job.
The plight of Wang, subsequently spirited across the border to the Myawaddy area from which he was rescued, drew widespread interest in China. He has since returned home.
It also sparked a rare grassroots effort that collected the names of nearly 1,800 Chinese whose families said had been trafficked into Myanmar.
The junta in Myanmar, which is battling a widening civil war since its 2021 coup, is also participating in the effort, detaining more than 1,500 people in the Myawaddy area, 250 of them on Wednesday, state media said.
"Officials are working with relevant agencies to collect personal information of these individuals for prompt repatriation," the Global Light of Myanmar newspaper said on Thursday.
Some scam centre survivors among a group of 260 who returned last week from Myawaddy and are now sheltering in a military camp said cuts and bruises on their bodies were a result of beatings and electrocution inflicted on them.
In all, about 7,000 people rescued from scam compounds in Myanmar are waiting to be transferred to Thailand, Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Zaw Naing Oo, Chalinee Thirasupa, Panarat Thepgumpanat and Shoon Naing; Additional reporting by Eduardo Baptista in Beijing; Writing by Chayut Setboonsarng; Editing by Devjyot Ghoshal, Clarence Fernandez and Giles Elgood)
