Nearly 500 Indian nationals have crossed into Thailand following a crackdown on several notorious scam centres in Myanmar, and India is working with Thai authorities to bring them home after completing the required legal process, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, reported PTI.
It is learnt that New Delhi is considering sending an aircraft to Thailand to repatriate the Indians, most of whom were victims of cyber fraud rackets operating from Myanmar’s KK Park complex, said PTI .
Confirming the development, Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said nearly 500 Indians are currently at Mae Sot in western Thailand. “The Indian government will send a plane to take them back directly,” he said.
Anutin did not say whether the Indian nationals were being treated as criminals or victims.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said the Indian embassy in Bangkok is coordinating closely with the Thai authorities on the matter.
“We are aware of Indian nationals who have been detained by Thai authorities,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said. “They had crossed into Thailand from Myanmar over the past few days. Our Mission in Thailand is working closely with Thai authorities to verify their nationality and to repatriate them, after necessary legal formalities are completed in Thailand.”
Jaiswal was responding to media queries on the issue.
Meanwhile, Indian Ambassador to Thailand Nagesh Singh met Pol. Lt. Gen. Panumas Boonyalug, Commissioner of the Immigration Bureau of the Royal Thai Police, and discussed the early repatriation of the Indian nationals.
The Indian nationals are among more than 1,500 people from 28 countries who have fled Myanmar following the crackdown on the scam centres, according to reports cited by PTI. These scam hubs are involved in large-scale transnational cyber fraud operations.
A UN report has detailed how hundreds of trafficked individuals from various countries were forced to carry out online scams in these centres. Similar facilities are reportedly located in Cambodia, Laos, the Philippines and Malaysia.
The underground operations are often linked to criminal networks that recruit victims globally, coercing them to work in cyber fraud compounds across Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, the Philippines and Malaysia, the report said in May.
Sprawling compounds where internet tricksters target people with romance and business cons have thrived along Myanmar's loosely governed border during its civil war, sparked by a 2021 coup.
Since last week one of the most notorious hubs, KK Park, has been roiled by apparent raids, with hundreds fleeing over the frontier river to the Thai town of Mae Sot.
It is learnt that the Indians who fled from Myanmar to Thailand include both victims of the scam centres and individuals involved in their operation.
In March, India had repatriated 549 nationals who were freed from cyber scam centres along the Myanmar–Thailand border.
Experts say Myanmar's military has long turned a blind eye to scam centres which profit its militia allies who are crucial collaborators in their fight against rebels.
But the junta has also faced pressure to shut down scam operations from its military backer China, irked at its citizens both participating in and being targeted by the scams.
The February crackdown saw around 7,000 workers repatriated and Thailand enforce a cross-border internet blockade in a bid to throttle off the fraud factories.
(With inputs from PTI, AFP)