JAKARTA - Thailand received 260 victims of human trafficking, more than half of whom were Ethiopian citizens, from Myanmar, the Thai military said.
The repatriation of human trafficking victims occurred in a massive repatriation carried out amid increasing crackdown on fraud centers operating along vulnerable borders.
Criminal gangs trade hundreds of thousands of people and force them to work in illegal online operations that generate billions of dollars annually across Southeast Asia, mainly along the Thailand-Myanmar border, according to the United Nations.
"After filtering the group and verifying their citizenship, it was found that there were 20 citizenship," the Thai army said in a statement reported by Reuters on Thursday, February 13.
It was stated that 138 of them were Ethiopian citizens.
Although this illegal operation has been going on for years, Thai authorities renewed their efforts last month after Chinese actor Wang Xing was kidnapped in Thailand, persuaded by promises of acting.
He was later released by Thai police who found him in Myanmar.
On Wednesday, a large group of victims of trafficking people who were repatriated from the Myawaddy area of Myanmar were seen crossing the Moei River towards Thailand, where they were directed to Thai military vehicles when soldiers saw them.
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The Buddhist Karen Democrats, Myanmar's rebel group based along the Thai border, said they found about 260 people from an unnamed 'business' when its personnel sought forced labor in the territory it controls.
"We don't know how they got here," the troop chief of staff, Major Saw San Aung, told Reuters.
"We continue to search for forced workers, and we will repatriate them," he added.
Thailand earlier this month cut off electricity, fuel and internet supplies to several areas in Myanmar where the illegal complex operates, reflecting growing anxiety in Bangkok over the impact of the fraud center on the essential tourism sector.
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