Myawaddy: The operation to transport Chinese call center gang members from Myawaddy, Myanmar, across the Thai border and send them back on planes today, totaling 200 people, is considered the first step in cracking down on transnational crime on the Thai-Myanmar border, hoping to reduce fraud against people around the world.
According to Thai News Agency, the operation began with dozens of buses from the Thai side crossing the 2nd Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge at the Mae Sot border to pick up a group of Chinese nationals, some of whom were part of a call center gang. Some were deceived and some volunteered to work in Myawaddy. On the Myawaddy side, Myanmar police and soldiers from the Karen Border Guard Force (BGF), led by BGF spokesman Lt. Col. Nai Maung Soe, jointly sent 200 Chinese nationals on buses out of the 2nd Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge, through Myanmar immigration, before crossing the bridge back to the Thai side, amidst Thai and international media, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Myanmar, who were following the operation, but were not allowed to enter the building to record images.
It was reported that this group of Chinese from Myawaddy entered the face scan and fingerprint collection screening according to the biometric system of the Thai Immigration Bureau in order to be blacklisted from entering Thailand again without having to enter the National Referral Mechanism or NRM of Thailand, similar to the deportation of victims of the call center gang and human trafficking gang from Myawaddy who were deported across to Thailand like other countries before because there was already a screening of these Chinese people in the Shwe Kokko Special Economic Zone area according to the cooperation of Thailand, China and Myanmar in solving the problem of transnational crime and call center gangs in Myawaddy.
Then, officials took the Chinese people by bus, 50 people per group, to Mae Sot International Airport, where China Southern Airlines planes from Nanjing picked them up today, a total of 4 flights, a total of 200 people, with Thai and Chinese officials closely monitoring them. The destination is Jinghong City or 12 Panna in southern China.
The first batch of Chinese people sent back today is 200 people, and in the following days, there will be 16 flights, totaling about 800 people. But the crackdown on the call center gang in Myawaddy has only just begun after Thailand cut off electricity, internet and oil for about 2 weeks. The first crackdown 5 days ago by the BGF, a Karen group led by Mong Chit Thu, took control of almost 2,000 foreigners in Myawaddy, as well as the DKBA Karen group that cracked down on hundreds of foreigners opposite Ban Chong Khaep, Phop Phra District, Thailand. They will be gradually sent across the border to Thailand to enter Thailand's national repatriation mechanism before coordinating with various embassies to pick them up. There should be continued crackdowns on Chinese gangs in Myawaddy to relieve the pressure from the cut off of electricity, internet and oil from Thailand, or until the Chinese gangs agree to move their base to another area.