THE SCAM SYNDICATE CRISIS
Certainly, thousands have been lured to scam centres clustered around Thailand’s borders like barnacles around the hull of a ship.
They are usually hard-up, unemployed youth from places like India, Pakistan, China, Myanmar, the Philippines, and even as far as Ethiopia and Somalia. Lured by promises of a job, they often arrive in Thailand first but then are taken to a scam centre where their passports are confiscated.
Stripped of their freedom, they become today’s equivalent of drug mules trapped in an illicit economy worth billions of dollars, run by wealthy and powerful individuals, most of whom are well-known yet seemingly operate with impunity.
In our region, scam syndicates steal almost US$64 billion annually from victims around the world, according to the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) in a May 2024 report.
Sometimes, the hapless workers manage to get away or are rescued. In March, 549 Indians were repatriated after being rescued from scam centres operating near the Myanmar-Thailand border. China also repatriated thousands of its citizens in February and March.
The intense flurry of activity followed the abduction in January of Chinese actor Wang Xing, who was trafficked to Myanmar after being lured to Thailand for a film shoot.
Wang had exchanged a series of texts with his girlfriend in China after landing in Bangkok, but went silent after he reached Mae Sot, the Thai border town across from Myawaddy, a notorious scam hub in Myanmar.
Alarmed, his girlfriend alerted Chinese police and consular officials in Thailand and went public on social media. In the end, Thai police retrieved Wang Xing from Myawaddy and brought him back to Thailand, in an operation whose details remain unknown.
Source: CNA
