Indians among over 1,000 fleeing Myanmar for Thailand after military raids on scam call centres
Thai media outlet Khaosod reported that 399 Indian nationals, the largest group among the escapees,
Hundreds of Indians were among more than 1,000 people who fled from Myanmar into Thailand this week after the country’s military raided one of Southeast Asia’s biggest cybercrime hubs, according to local and international reports.
Thai media outlet Khaosod reported that 399 Indian nationals, the largest group among the escapees, crossed into Thailand, though the figure could not be independently verified. India’s Ministry of External Affairs has not commented on the matter.
The Indians were among people who fled the notorious KK Park compound in Myanmar’s Myawaddy region and entered Thailand’s Mae Sot district between Wednesday and Friday, according to Thai provincial authorities quoted by AFP.
The mass escape followed a raid launched earlier in the week by Myanmar’s military junta on KK Park, a vast complex infamous for housing cyber scam operations.
Also Read | Myanmar scam centre raid sends hundreds fleeing to Thailand
How have the online fraud centres emerged?
Over the past few years, sprawling online fraud centres have proliferated along Myanmar’s border regions amid the country’s prolonged civil conflict.
Many of those working in these compounds are victims of trafficking, while others join voluntarily, lured by the promise of high earnings in the multibillion-dollar cybercrime industry.
Local officials told AFP that around 40 people, including Taiwanese nationals and citizens of several African countries, crossed the Moei River into Thailand on Friday using small boats.
Thai security forces searched their belongings and documents before transporting them in trucks, AFP footage showed.
More details on the centres
Thailand’s Tak provincial office said that 1,049 people had crossed from Myanmar into Mae Sot between Wednesday and Friday morning — a sharp rise from 677 on Thursday.
The group included nationals from India, Pakistan, Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand, and over a dozen other countries, though Thai authorities said most were Chinese men.
Myanmar’s military announced Monday that it had raided KK Park, located just across the border from Thailand, and seized Starlink satellite internet devices used by the operators. Footage aired by Thai PBS showed people floating across the river on foam boxes during their escape.
“I was sleeping when I heard loud knocking and people shouting in Chinese,” a Thai woman told the broadcaster. “They were carrying guns.”
Myanmar’s state-run Global New Light of Myanmar reported Friday that authorities had “recently detained 118 foreign nationals from 14 countries who had illegally entered Myanmar through border routes and were engaged in online gambling and scam operations” in the KK Park area.
