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