Thailand’s deputy prime minister claims that the country is prepared for an influx and that it will immediately return foreigners.
Discussed: 12 Feb 2025 at 20: 19
UPDATED: 12 Feb 2025 at 21: 02
After Thailand shut down power and web, Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai announced on Wednesday that the government is getting ready for an influx of foreign victims who have been freed from the claws of call-center con groups in Myanmar.
He made the statement just before the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army ( DKBA ) repatriated 261 of these victims in Thailand. After being rescued from the KK Park and Shwe Kokko pleasure compounds, they arrived at Phop Phra city of Tak at around 4.30 p.
According to Thai officials, the foreigners may be interrogated and sent back to their home countries with the assistance of their diplomats. Officials are anticipated to discover that some people were trafficked while others accepted the position, as in previous situations.
Mr. Phumtham claimed previously on Wednesday that he learned on Tuesday that the Myanmar state was unable to take care of the 53 immigrants who were expected to be sent to Phop Phra.
However, the Defense Ministry eventually made it clear that there were more than 261 people living there. The 53 immigrants on the original record included Bangladeshis, Ethiopians, Kenyans and Filipinos.  ,
Thai authorities will verify all those who return and ask them about their past experiences or potential involvement in trafficking. If they weren’t swindlers, it may take three months to a quarter to arrange for them to be returned to their home places. Others might be held in custody for constitutional actions.
Mr. Phumtham claimed that while Thailand was informed that criminals were preparing to release trapped staff and send them to Thailand, it could not accept them all.
” If their native countries will not accept them, we will not receive them]from Myanmar ]”, he said. He reaffirmed that Thailand did not establish a refugee camp for immigrants entering from swindling camps.
Mr. Phumtham claimed that many nations had reached Thailand through their embassies to ask for assistance for their citizens. When those patients are sent to Thailand, the offices will be notified so they can deal with the relocation.
According to Mr. Phumtham, who is also the defense minister, the government has now deployed more security forces along the boundary to deal with any potential influx of people from call centers.
He claimed that the government had informed Myanmar’s officials that Thailand would ease restrictions on the supply of online services, energy, and energy if Myanmar demonstrated it was free of fraud centers.
” We are on the right path. We are certainly concerned about the obstacles to preventing exports from us,” said Mr. Phumtham.
He made reference to current protests by Myanmar residents calling for the five border regions where the criminal sites are based to be barred from purchasing Thai items.
According to sources at the frontier, more than 17, 000 call-centre fraud victims remain in Myanmar. About 10, 000 are Chinese and the rest are various international citizens, the resources said.
Some of the 261 immigrants who were rescued from Myawaddy con centers are loaded into military trucks to be taken to Tak’s Phop Phra area office for processing and initial questioning on Wednesday. ( Photo: Assawin Pinitwong )