By Panarat Thepgumpanat and Panu Wongcha-um
BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand and China will work together to combat fast-growing networks of illegal call centres along the Thai border with Myanmar and Cambodia, often staffed by trafficked workers, that aim to defraud people in phone and online scams.
Southeast Asia – especially border areas between Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia – has become a hub for telecom and other online fraud since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the United Nations, which says hundreds of thousands of people have been trafficked to work in scam centres.
Thai police said on Friday that a coordination centre would be set up at the national police headquarters in Bangkok and Chinese authorities plan to set up another one in Thailand’s Mae Sot district, which borders Myanmar’s Myawaddy, a major hub for the scam call centres.
“This centre (in Bangkok) will work together (with China) to investigate and combat call centre gangs based in Myawaddy, Myanmar, and along the Cambodian border, which involve many Chinese and Thai nationals,” the Thai police said.
“The coordination centre is expected to commence operations within February 2025,” said the statement, which came after a meeting of Thai and Chinese security officials in Bangkok.
Public pressure has been building in Thailand for authorities to take action against the scam compounds, where workers are lured in from around the world, and are often treated brutally.
China, too, has become increasingly concerned, especially following the abduction and cross-border rescue from Myanmar of Chinese actor Wang Xing.
On Tuesday, Chinese-state media reported that officials from China, Myanmar, Thailand reached consensus on eradicating telecom fraud centres in Myanmar during a meeting in the Chinese city of Kunming.
The flurry of recent activity on combating scam centres also included a meeting this week between a Thai military delegation and the Myanmar junta’s second-in-command Soe Win in Naypyidaw to discuss a crackdown on human trafficking and online scams, Myanmar state media reported.
The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said this week that junta authorities had sent back over 55,000 foreign nationals, including more than 53,000 Chinese, from scam compounds to their home countries between October 2023 and January 2025.
The report also suggested that scam operations received support from Myanmar’s neighbouring countries, a claim that Thai Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai rejected on Thursday.
“This issue is not just about Thailand,” said Phumtham, “it is something where Myanmar and China also have to help.”
(Reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat and Panu Wongcha-um, Editing by Devjyot Ghoshal and Ros Russell)
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