Representatives from Myanmar, China, and Thailand met in Myawaddy Township of Karen State on Monday to discuss the ongoing raids to rescue and release foreign nationals trafficked into Myanmar to work in cyber scam centers along the Myanmar-Thailand border.
“We have adopted various means to address both symptoms and root causes, working together to prevent lawbreakers from crossing borders,” said China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Guo Jiakun in Beijing on Monday.
Myawaddy is located 140 miles (225 km) east of the Karen State capital Hpa-An and is across the border from Mae Sot, Tak Province of Thailand.
Regime media reported that the representatives from Myanmar, China, and Thailand “discussed the preventive system for telecom fraud between the three countries, the eradication of telecom fraud zones and the transfer of those involved in telecom fraud.”
The regime claimed that it had repatriated 1,303 foreign nationals, suspected of being trafficked into Myanmar to work at cyber scam centers in Karen State, to their home countries from Jan. 30 to Feb. 17.
China’s Assistant Minister for Public Security Liu Zhongyi, along with Thailand’s Secretary-General of the Ministry of Defence, Trisak Indararusmi, met with regime Deputy Minister for Home Affairs Aung Kyaw Kyaw, who is leading a committee to assist in repatriating foreigners trafficked into cyber scam compounds, in Myawaddy on Monday.
The National Unity Government (NUG) Foreign Minister Zin Mar Aung accused the regime and pro-military militias of facilitating cyber scams from the Myanmar-Thai border targeting foreign countries on Saturday.
“These operations are primarily run by the military council’s Border Guard Force,” the BBC reported Zin Mar Aung saying during her session at the Global Democracy Trends forum hosted by the Munich Security Conference 2025 in Germany.
Karen Border Guard Force (BGF) leader Saw Chit Thu and the regime in Naypyidaw have repeatedly denied any involvement in cyber scam operations.
Prosecutors from Thailand’s Department of Special Investigation (DSI) Human Trafficking Crime Bureau have requested arrest warrants for Saw Chit Thu and two other BGF leaders.
Napyidaw blamed “other countries” in a thinly-veiled reference to Thailand for the increasing number of cyber scam centers operating along its 1,501 mile (2,416 km) long shared border.
The Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA), an ethnic armed group based in Karen State, handed over 261 foreigners from 19 countries – believed to have been trafficked into cyber scam centers – to the Thai army on Feb. 12.
China announced in January that it had launched an operation which led to the arrest of 70,000 cyber scam suspects and rescued 160 human trafficking victims from six countries.
