Thailand’s scam centre crackdown not enough, warns top lawmaker

BANGKOK – An ongoing effort targeting scam compounds along Thailand's border with Myanmar has led to only a small proportion of workers there being pulled out, a top Thai opposition lawmaker said, calling for more comprehensive measures to stamp out a booming illegal industry.

Thailand – backed by China – is pushing to dismantle scam centres in Myanmar's Myawaddy area, part of a network of illicit and highly lucrative operations across South-east Asia where hundreds of thousands have been trafficked by criminal gangs in recent years, according to the United Nations. 

Mr Rangsiman Rome, Thailand’s leading voice in calls for action against border boiler rooms that have defrauded Thais of hundreds of millions of dollars, told Reuters in an interview that 300,000 people were operating in Myawaddy scam compounds, fewer than 10,000 of whom had been rescued.  

“It means like the empire of the scam is still there... we’re just shaking them,” said Mr Rome, chair of the Thai Parliament’s committee on national security and border affairs.

Mr Rome, who has travelled through some of the border areas himself, said about 40 scam compounds existed there. He did not cite evidence. “If we just stop, they can continue their business.” 

In Parliament on Feb 27, Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said the issue of scam centres is an urgent matter the government was addressing.

Although scam centres around Myawaddy and other frontier towns have operated for years, they came under renewed focus after the abduction of Chinese actor Wang Xing in Thailand in January, which kicked off a social media firestorm in his home country.

He was later found in the Myawaddy area, rescued and sent back to China.

'Stop the corruption'

As part of a coordinated response, Thailand cut off electricity, internet and fuel supplies to some border areas, including Myawaddy, where armed groups have also worked to pull people out of scam centres, including human trafficking victims.

More than 7,000 foreigners – mostly from China –

are waiting to cross from Myawaddy into Thailand,

which is coordinating with multiple embassies to streamline their repatriations. 

But the Thai authorities are not doing enough to take down the kingpins running the scam operations or Thai officials complicit in allowing their expansion, said Mr Rome, who represents the opposition People's Party. 

They include Colonel Saw Chit Thu, a Myanmar warlord who controls areas around Myawaddy and has long been seen as central to the rise of scam centres on the Thai frontier.

“We know that he has a big connection with the Thai side,” said Mr Rome, pointing to suspected links between Colonel Saw, who leads the Karen National Army, and Thai officials.

Colonel Saw and his militia could not be reached for comment. 

In recent weeks, the Thai police have transferred several officials from Tak province bordering Myawaddy, following the appointment of a fact-finding committee to investigate allegations of human trafficking. 

Mr Rome said officials across Thailand's government and security agencies were complicit in the dramatic expansion of the scam compounds.

“It’s time to stop the corruption in Thailand,” he added. REUTERS