Myanmar scam center workers plea for repatriation

MYAWADDY (AFP) — Hundreds of exhausted young men lie in an open-sided detention center in a seedy Myanmar border town, sweating through thick tropical heat by day and prey to clouds of mosquitoes by night.

They are among some 7,000 people from more than two dozen countries released from scam compounds who are now enduring a gruelling wait to be sent home through Thailand.

Conditions in the overcrowded temporary camp visited by Agence France-Presse (AFP) in the town of Myawaddy, near the Thai border, were squalid and those held there were begging to leave.

“It’s really no good,” one 18-year-old Malaysian man told AFP, saying the toilets and showers were so dirty they were unusable.

“I hope I can contact my parents quickly so I can go.”

A Chinese detainee who gave his family name as Wang said he was “very happy” at the prospect of getting out.

“I can finally escape this hell... China is the safest,” said he.

‘Help me, help me, help me’

Scam centers have sprung up in Myanmar’s lawless border areas in recent years as part of a criminal industry worth billions of dollars a year.

Thousands of foreign workers staff the centers, trawling social media for victims to fleece, often through romance or investment cons.

Many workers say they were trafficked or tricked into taking the work and suffer beatings and abuse, though the government in China — where most come from — regards them as criminal suspects.

Under heavy pressure from Beijing, Myanmar’s junta and allied militias have taken action to curb the centers.

The “crackdown” has so far involved armed uniformed men coming to the sites and asking for volunteers to leave and go home, several freed workers told AFP in Myawaddy.

But processing the workers for repatriation has been slow, leaving them trapped in limbo, smoking and playing cards to pass the time in the detention facility, which has a roof but no walls to keep the elements and insects out.

Many had their passports confiscated by scam center bosses, and those AFP spoke to said their mobile phones were taken away.

An Indian man who said he was tricked into working in the scam centers after applying for a data entry job in Thailand, told AFP he had contacted his embassy in Bangkok several times.