(Reuters)
MAE SOT, Thailand, Feb 20- A group of 50 Chinese nationals plucked from scam centres in Myanmar crossed into Thailand to take a flight home, a Thai police official said on Thursday, as part of a multinational effort to repatriate 600 Chinese.
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.
The group crossed into Thailand at Mae Sot, 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.
“All 50 have boarded the plane that the Chinese government arranged,” regional police official Raveepat Amornmuneepong told Reuters, adding that Chinese authorities will winnow victims trafficked to scam compounds from the criminals in the group.
“There are four flights today.”
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.
