Thai, Cambodian police free 215 foreigners in scam centre raid

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BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thai and Cambodian police raided a building in a border town and freed 215 foreigners, a senior Thai official said on Sunday, in an expansion of a regional crackdown against cyber scam centres.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been trafficked by criminal gangs and forced to work in scam centres and illegal online operations across Southeast Asia, according to the United Nations. A U.N. report in 2023 estimated that the fast-growing operations generate billions of dollars annually.

The Sunday raid targeted a three-storey building in the Cambodian border town of Poipet in Banteay Meanchey province. The rescued foreigners included 109 Thais, 50 Pakistanis, 48 Indians, five Taiwanese and three Indonesians, Thai government spokesman Jirayu Houngsub said on Sunday.

“This is the largest number of Thais freed from a building suspected of cyber fraud for the two countries,” Jirayu said.

The raid was the result of a joint effort by Thailand and Cambodia to tackle scam centres, he said.

Scam centres have been operating for years. But they now face new scrutiny after the rescue of Chinese actor, Wang Xing, who was lured to Thailand with the promise of a job, and then abducted and taken to a scam centre in Myanmar.

Southeast Asian countries have stepped up efforts to tackle scam centres with recent actions along the Thai-Myanmar border. Earlier this month, Thailand cut power, fuel and internet supply to areas linked with scam centres.

China also repatriated 621 of its nationals rescued from scam centres in those areas over the past few days, the Thai army said on Saturday.

(Reporting by Panu Wongcha-um and Panarat Thepgumpanat; Editing by Tom Hogue)