YANGON: A Myanmar ethnic militia said on Saturday it was preparing to deport 10,000 people linked to cyber scams in the area it controls to Thailand as part of a crackdown on the illicit compounds.

Scam compounds have mushroomed in Myanmar’s borderlands and are staffed by foreigners who are often trafficked and forced to work, swindling people around the world in an industry analysts say is worth billions of dollars.

“We have announced to get rid of all scams from our soil. We are now implementing it,” Karen Border Guard Force (BGF) spokesman Major Naing Maung Zaw said on Saturday. “We have made a list and are prepared to transfer about 10,000 people (to Thailand),” he said.

The deportations would be carried out in groups of 500 per day. The BGF has already sent 61 people across a border bridge to Thailand and are preparing to hand over “about 500 people including many different nationalities” daily, Naing Maung Zaw said.

The military task force responsible for border security in Thailand’s Tak province has coordinated with BGF leaders to receive 7,000 workers from scam compounds, Thai media reported on Saturday.

BGF soldiers patrolled workplaces at Shwe Kokko in Myanmar’s eastern Myawaddy township on Friday as part of a crackdown on alleged human trafficking, an agency’s stringer saw.

Shwe Kokko, a scam compound located in an area under BGF control in Karen state, is a built-up city that stands out among the surrounding agricultural fields. Cyber scam compounds often lure people from around the globe with promises of high-paying jobs but then effectively hold them hostage and force them to commit online fraud or face severe punishment.

Published in Dawn, February 16th, 2025