China repatriates hundreds of scam factory workers from Myanmar

Hundreds of people who had been working in Myanmar’s notorious scam centres have left on evacuation flights organised by China.

The flights mark Beijing’s latest win in its battle against the centres, estimated to hold hundreds of thousands of human trafficking victims.

China has been ramping up the pressure on both Myanmar’s military government and armed groups to close the centres.

Money from the centres has poured into both crime and Myanmar’s civil war.

But last year, battlefield victories by ethnic insurgents along Myanmar’s border with China led to some of the most notorious scam centres being shut down.

Thousands of people, many of them Chinese victims of human trafficking, were handed over to the Chinese police.

This latest group were found further south, working in an area controlled by ethnic Karen insurgents – both fighting for and against Myanmar’s military rulers, who took control in a coup in February 2021.

The repatriation flights – which took off from the town of Mae Sai, on the border in Thailand – were carrying about 150 people each, and were the first of a series to leave, taking as many as 1,000 people to China, according to news agency DW.

United Nations estimates, released last year, suggest as many as 120,000 people had been trafficked into centres in Myanmar, with a further 100,000 in Cambodia.

Many of the trafficking victims are lured by adverts promising easy work and extravagant perks, only to find themselves held prisoner and forced to work in online scam centres. Those who do not comply face threats to their safety. Many have been subject to torture and inhuman treatment.

The centres have generated billions of dollars, both for Chinese underworld crime syndicates, and for the various armed groups operating along the Thai border.

But the recent crackdowns have seen numerous centres shut down, with Myanmar’s Ministry of Public Security saying about 44,000 people suspected to be involved in the scam centres have been handed over to the Chinese government.

Among the most high profile were three Chinese warlords, who were known for trafficking thousands of foreign workers to forcibly run scams, sent to Beijing in January.