At least two hundred freed ‘cyber slaves’ are still stuck in the border area between Thailand and Myanmar. That says the Karen National Army, which says they provide them with food, drink and medical care.
It would be citizens from Vietnam, China, the Philippines and Indonesia who were forced to inform people by telephone and online from so -called scam centers in Myanmar. This is done, among other things, by seducing people through dating apps to invest in crypto. They initially make a little profit that should bring them to make large sums of money.
At the beginning of this year, Thailand stopped the delivery of electricity, internet and fuel at five border areas in Myanmar in an attempt to disrupt scams there. It led to the dismantling of a large part of these centers where, according to the KNA, around eight thousand people were released with foreign nationality. Some of them are unable to return to their country of origin because they have no papers and no money. They are forced to live under terrible conditions in Myanmar, where the population has been suppressed by a military junta since 2021.
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“We give these people food and medical help,” KNA spokesman Naing Maung Zaw told Reuters news agency earlier this week. In the past, KNA proved protection to the scam centers. But the group, which was then called Karen Border Guard Force, was changed aside and now helps with the approach to criminal networks.
According to Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinatra, the stopping of the power supply to Myanmar led to the relocation of the scams to Cambodia. Amnesty International concluded on Thursday in a report that the Cambodian government consciously ignores signals From human trafficking that leads to imprisonment in the scams centers. According to Amnesty, there are at least 53 of these types of centers in Cambodia. Victims told Amnesty researchers that they were abused, including with electric shocks, and were locked up in dark spaces. Children also fell victim.
Prime Minister Shinatra announced last week that it would also stop supplying electricity to border regions in Cambodia, to thwart the criminal activities there.
Late
In this case, the electricity stop also serves another purpose. The position of Paetongtarn has been on a thread in Thailand since a border conflict with Cambodia, in which a Cambodian soldier has been shot. Thailand and Cambodia have been bombarding each other with measures since. For example, Cambodia has banned Thai films and series, and it no longer imports fruit from the neighboring country. Thailand has sharpened the border controls and now adds the threat to stopping electricity deliveries.
The problems for the Thai Premier arose after a phone call with the former Prime Minister of Cambodia, their SEN, leaked across the border conflict. In it, the Thai Prime Minister expressed himself late about a general of his own Thai army.