Myanmar’s military government recently took action against a massive online scam center known as KK Park, situated near the border town of Myawaddy, across from Mae Sot, Thailand. This operation, which began in early September and involved a mid-October raid, was part of a larger effort to suppress widespread cross-border illegal gambling and cybercrime rings. Following the operation, the number of people crossing into Thailand—many of whom are believed to be former workers—dropped to just a trickle on Tuesday, according to a Thai regional army commander, Maj. Gen. Maitree Chupreecha. This comes after an initial surge that saw over 1,500 people enter Thailand in the previous week.
The KK Park site, which Thai authorities and independent experts had identified as a major hub for cybercrime, is located in an area that presents a complex governance challenge. The Myawaddy region is only partially under the control of Myanmar’s central military government, with an allied local militia from the Karen ethnic minority, operating as a Border Guard Force, sharing power. This delicate balance was evident in the recent actions, as the Thai army reported that parts of KK Park were demolished by coordinated explosions carried out by the Myanmar military and its Border Guard Force partners.
The dramatic nature of the suppression was confirmed by witnesses on the Thai side of the border, who reported hearing explosions and seeing smoke rising from the center for several nights, starting on Friday. These blasts were powerful enough that debris caused damage to multiple houses on the Thai side of the border, according to Thailand’s Naresuan Task Force. The task force commander noted that only 25 people from four different countries crossed into Thailand on Tuesday, though he didn’t specify their nationalities.
The individuals who fled Myanmar are predominantly thought to have been employees at the scam center, often forced to work under duress. Authorities in Thailand’s Tak province have set up temporary shelters and reported that the displaced individuals come from 28 nations, including Thailand, India, China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Ethiopia, and Kenya. They are currently being processed to determine if they are victims of human trafficking and can then be repatriated to their home countries. Myanmar has become notorious for hosting these sophisticated scam operations, which frequently lure workers from abroad with false promises of legitimate employment only to hold them captive and force them into criminal activity.
While the raid on KK Park signifies a major move, reports from Myanmar’s independent media, such as The Irrawaddy, suggest that online scams continue to operate in the wider Myawaddy area. Furthermore, this issue is not isolated to Myanmar. Cambodia is another prominent center for these cybercrime operations, a fact that received international attention recently when the United States and the United Kingdom sanctioned organizers of a major Cambodian cyberscam gang, and the alleged ringleader was indicted in a U.S. federal court in New York.
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