10 fugitives sent to Mae Sai police
A total of 111 Thais who had been stranded in Laukkaing town in Myanmar’s northern Shan State were brought home via the 2nd Thailand-Myanmar Friendship Bridge in Chiang Rai’s Mae Sai district yesterday.
Col Thura Zaw Lwin Soe, tactical operation commander of Tachileik, handed the 111 returnees over to Thai authorities.
Upon reaching Mae Sai, they were greeted by Col Natee Timsen, commander of the Thap Chao Tak Task Force of the Pha Muang Force and chair of the Thailand-Myanmar Township Border Committee, and other Thai officials.
Col Natee said Myanmar was delighted to help the return of Thais affected by the conflict with rebels in the north.
He also thanked the Myanmar army for helping the repatriation.
The group of 111 returnees is the fourth group of Thais repatriated over land from Myanmar, he said, noting this signifies strong relations between the Myanmar and Thai armies.
After going through the disease screening and immigration process, officials said 10 of the returnees — eight men and two women — had arrest warrants and were subsequently handed over to Mae Sai police.
The rest were taken to temporary shelters in tambon Rim Kok in Muang district, where a total of 67 men were sent to the Chiang Rai Volunteer Defence Corps, and a total of 34 women were sent to the New Life Centre Foundation for questioning following their repatriation.
One of the Thai returnees told reporters via the Line mobile chat application that they were from the northeastern region. They saw a job advertisement on Facebook for a website administrator in Mae Sai of Chiang Rai in July, he said, noting it offered 20,000 baht per month.
However, upon arriving in Mae Sai in July, they were brought to Tachileik in Myanmar and sold to a Chinese gang, he said. The gang allegedly forced the Thai nationals to scam people online and come up with 90,000 baht each.
The Thai nationals were allegedly detained without food and tortured if they could not reach the target.
About 500 Chinese nationals were also lured to work for the gang, the returnee said.
They were finally rescued in November by Chinese forces and members of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, he said.
Kanchana Patarachoke, Director-General of the Department of Information and Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, yesterday said that so far, 414 Thais have been evacuated from Myanmar, with 307 in November and 107 earlier this month.