Myanmar scam center escapees recall torture and coercion
STORY: :: February 19, 2025
:: Mueang Tak District, Thailand
:: Myanmar scam center escapees recall torture at a notorious crime compound
Faysal/21-year-old Bangladeshi scam compound victim
'I asked one of my colleagues from this place, what happened there? What is the job? He was telling me about the punch, electric shock. And same at night, I informed to the (inaudible) I want to go back to my country. I don't want to work.'
'We are not scammers. We are victims. They use us. And if somebody don't want to work with them, they're in Myanmar they say, in Chinese said, they have one of biggest market, the place where they're selling the organs, human organs, kidney, eyes, like this. They are warning us, if you are not working with us, we can (do this) with your body.'
Yotor/19-year-old Ethiopian scam compound victim
'I got a lot of punishments, like I receive shock, electric shock everyday. I received punch everyday. Like nothing, they just want to punish us, and they punish us. Because, like, we were working for 18 hours without salary, without, like they did not allow us to contact our family.'
"I got a lot of punishments," said 19-year-old Yotor, who gave only one name and had cuts along his leg. "I received electric shocks every day."
Yotor and his countrymen are among 260 people, most of them human-trafficking victims, who were sent from Myanmar to Thailand last week as a multinational crackdown on scam centers along the border between the two countries gathers pace.
For years, according to the United Nations, criminal gangs have trafficked hundreds of thousands of people to scam compounds across Southeast Asia, including along the Thai-Myanmar frontier, where victims have been forced to work in illegal online operations.
But Thai authorities launched a renewed clampdown last month after the abduction of Chinese actor Wang Xing, who had been lured to Thailand by the promise of a lucrative acting job. He was later found near the Myanmar town of Myawaddy and has since returned home.
Around 7,000 people rescued from scam compounds in Myanmar are waiting to be transferred to Thailand, Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said on Wednesday.
Of these, around 600 Chinese nationals will be sent home on three flights starting Thursday from the Thai border town of Mae Sot once they cross over, Thai Defence Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said.
Some of those rescued from the scam compounds said they were forced to work nearly 20 hours each day to defraud men using instant messaging applications like WhatsApp.
"When a client says 'I love you', then we start washing his brain how to get money," said Faysal, 21, from Bangladesh.
But when scam workers were unable to meet targets, he said, they were beaten.
"We are not scammers," said Faysal. "We are victims."
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