Thailand mulls over wall at Cambodia border as scam centre crackdown widens
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The crackdown is widening against scam centres responsible for carrying out massive financial fraud out of South-east Asia.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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BANGKOK – Thailand is studying the idea of building a wall on part of its border with Cambodia to prevent illegal crossings, its government said on March 3, as a multinational effort to dismantle a sprawling network of illicit scam centres mounts.
The crackdown is widening against scam centres responsible for carrying out massive financial fraud out of South-east Asia, especially those on Thailand’s porous borders with Myanmar and Cambodia, where hundreds of thousands of people have been trafficked by criminal gangs in recent years, according to the United Nations.
At the weekend, the Thai police received 119 Thai nationals from the Cambodian authorities after a raid in the town of Poipet pulled out more than 215 people from a scam compound.
“If it is done, how will it be done? What results and how will it solve problems? This is a study,” Thai government spokesperson Jirayu Houngsub said of the wall proposal, without specifying its length.
A spokesperson for Cambodia’s government declined to comment on the wall proposal. Its foreign ministry spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Thailand and Cambodia share a border of 817km. The Thai Defence Ministry has previously proposed a wall to block off a 55km natural crossing between Thailand’s Sa Kaeo province and Poipet, which at present is only protected by razor wire.
Telecom fraud centres have been operating for years in South-east Asia, ensnaring people of multiple countries as far away as West Africa. They have faced heightened scrutiny after the rescue in January of Chinese actor Wang Xing,
In Myanmar’s Myawaddy, more than 7,000 foreigners – mostly from China – are waiting to cross into Thailand, which is coordinating with embassies to try to streamline their repatriations.
Hundreds of foreigners pulled out of the compounds are in limbo in squalid conditions in a militia camp and struggling to secure a route home, according to some detainees, while a top Thai lawmaker last week said the crackdown is insufficient, estimating 300,000 people have been operating in compounds in Myawaddy alone. REUTERS
