India plans repatriation of 500 nationals who fled Myanmar scam centre

Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said India's embassy was working with Thailand 'to verify their nationality and to repatriate them, after necessary legal formalities are completed in Thailand.'

India plans to send an airplane to repatriate some 500 of its nationals who fled from a military raid on a scam centre in Myanmar into Thailand, Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said on Wednesday.

Starting last week, the Myanmar military has conducted a series of military operations against the KK Park cybercrime compound, driving more than 1,500 people from 28 countries into the Thai border town of Mae Sot, according to local authorities.

The border areas between Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia have become hubs for online fraud since the COVID-19 pandemic, and the United Nations says billions of dollars have been earned from trafficking hundreds of thousands of people forced to work in the compounds.

KK Park is notorious for its involvement in transnational cyberscams. The sprawling compound and others nearby are run primarily by  Chinese criminal gangs  and guarded by local militia groups  aligned to Myanmar's military.

Anutin said the Indian ambassador would meet the head of immigration to discuss speeding up the legal verification process for the 500 Indian nationals ahead of their flight back to India.

"They don't want this to burden us," Anutin said. "They will send a plane to pick these victims up... the plane will land directly in Mae Sot," he said.

Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said India's embassy was working with Thailand "to verify their nationality and to repatriate them, after necessary legal formalities are completed in Thailand."

Earlier this year India also sent a plane to repatriate its nationals after thousands were freed from cyberscam centres along the Thai-Myanmar border following a regional crackdown.