Some foreigners pulled out of Myanmar scam centres face struggle to get home

By Devjyot Ghoshal and Panu Wongcha-um

Hundreds of foreign nationals pulled out of scam compounds in Myanmar during a crackdown on centres run by criminal gangs have little food, scant healthcare and filthy toilets in the remote militia camp they have been taken to, two detainees said.

Some also have no easy way to get back to their distant home countries after being moved to the camp, along the border with Thailand, which is run by Myanmar's Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA) militia.

About 470 people are housed in the camp, where already harsh living conditions are deteriorating, two African nationals who are detained there told Reuters.

Both asked not to named because of safety concerns but shared their location by WhatsApp. It matched the location of a DKBA camp that was provided by an aid worker on the Thai border who is tracking the issue.

In recent weeks, authorities from China, Thailand and Myanmar have attempted to dismantle scam centres and illegal online operations on the border, part of a network of compounds across Southeast Asia, where hundreds of thousands have been trafficked by gangs, according to the United Nations.

"We barely eat twice a day. Sometimes twice, sometimes just once," a 29-year-old man from a central African country, who was moved to the camp on February 15, said by phone.

"The ladies don't have access to any sanitary pads. We have to use at most five restrooms for about 500 people."

Another detainee, a 39-year-old man from an east African country, accused the DKBA of not caring about humans and said: "We live like animals."

Asked for comment on the detainees' remarks, DKBA official Saw San Aug told Reuters the armed group was attempting to help those plucked out of scam compounds and had the best of intentions, supplying them with two meals a day.

"It might be true that they don't have enough toilets," he said. "There are lots of people and we are doing our best."

Although operational for years, illegal scam compounds are now the target of the multi-national crackdown launched after the abduction of a Chinese actor from Thailand in January.

He was later rescued from a compound in the Myawaddy area of southeastern Myanmar.

Scores of people, many of them human trafficking victims, have since been released from the Myawaddy area and flown home through Thailand.

About 7,000 pulled out of scam compounds are still trapped in limbo, including the group housed in the DKBA camp, opposite the Thai settlement of Chong Khaep.

NO MONEY FOR FLIGHT TICKET

Videos of the camp shared by a detainee show rows of filthy toilets, some clogged with faeces, and stacks of plastic food containers overflowing out of a black garbage bag.

In one photo, a group of men are seen lying or sleeping on a sheet on a bare floor.

A meal served on Friday consisted of a small portion of rice and vegetables served in a white foam box, another photo showed.

Reuters could not independently verify the authenticity of the images.

Since an initial group of released scam centre workers entered Thailand in February, Thai authorities have throttled cross-border movement, allowing only those people to come in whose countries have made arrangements for repatriation.

Thailand's foreign ministry said on Friday it would enable foreign embassies to verify their citizens in Myanmar.

The 29-year-old detainee who spoke to Reuters said he had contacted his central African country's embassy in China this week seeking help, but was told he and his countrymen would have to arrange for their tickets to leave Thailand themselves.

The embassy in Beijing did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

The detainee from the east African country said his nation's embassy in Tokyo had given him similar directions, but he and others did not have the funds to pay for their tickets.

"I spent almost three months in the jungle," he said, referring to his time at a scam compound. "I don't have any financial support from outside."

He said panic was beginning to grip some detainees in the DKBA camp over the prospect of being sent back to scam centres where witnesses have said coercion and torture are rife.

"We don't know what is happening, when we're going to leave this place," said the 29-year-old man.