The Karen Border Guard Force (BGF) stated on Wednesday that it had arrested six people accused of running cyber scam operations in Myawaddy Township of Karen State.
The BGF added that over 5,000 foreign nationals from 28 countries working at the cyber scam centers were released and are being held at BGF-run facilities in Myawaddy since it launched a crackdown at the behest of Thailand and China on Feb. 14.
“Chinese nationals are the largest among the rescued with 4,885. We’ve repatriated 2,080 of them,” Naing Maung Zaw, the BGF spokesperson, told the media at a press conference on March 12.
A committee was formed by the BGF in Shwe Kokko one month prior, on Feb. 12, and extended to other areas in Myawaddy, he added.
Shwe Kokko is under BGF control and is located 15 miles (24 km) north of Myawaddy in Karen State along the Myanmar-Thailand border. Myawaddy is located 140 miles (225 km) east of the state capital Hpa-An and is across from Mae Sot, Tak Province of Thailand.
The foreign nationals rescued from cyber scam centers in Myawaddy were from China, India, Malaysia and Ethiopia, according to recent media reports.
The BGF spokesperson said that 24 Malaysians were transported by bus from Myawaddy across the border to Mae Sot, and then onwards to the Thailand-Malaysia border in the south, on Tuesday. “We repatriated the last batch of 266 Indians [on March 11] and 283 [on March 10],” he told DVB.
Regime media reported on March 13 that 5,745 foreign nationals who had illegally entered Myanmar have been held since Jan. 30, but that 2,763 of them have been repatriated to their home countries already, via Thailand.
The BGF released a statement on March 1 stating that the power cuts from Thailand into Myawaddy had inflicted “suffering” upon ethnic nationality communities and foreigners trafficked into cyber scam centers along the border.
“The ongoing power outages, fuel shortages, and communication disruptions imposed by [Thailand] on Myawaddy, a Myanmar border town, have significantly hindered efforts to provide humanitarian assistance to these foreign nationals,” the BGF stated earlier this month.
Thailand cut access to electricity and fuel supplies to Myawaddy and Payathonzu townships in Karen State, as well as Tachilek Township in Shan State on Feb. 5. Payathonzu is located 133 miles (214 km) south of Myawaddy. Tachilek is located 355 miles (571 km) northeast of Myawaddy.
