Some 138 Ethiopians and 23 Kenyans are among 260 foreigners rescued this week from a forced labour camp in Myanmar, where they were held by a suspected Chinese online fraud cartel.
The victims, believed to have been trafficked through Thailand and forced to work in online fraud centres, were rescued by the Thai army amid growing concerns for their safety.
They are expected to be handed over to their respective embassies and repatriated to their countries of origin once the paperwork has been completed.
Thai officials confirmed that the rescued people were taken by boat to Phop Phra, Thailand, before being transferred to a secure facility.
The rescue was part of an escalating crackdown on human trafficking and cyber fraud along the border between the two countries.
Some of the foreigners rescued from a forced labour camp in Myanmar.
Photo credit: Pool
A Myanmar insurgent group, the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA), which recently raided fraud centres in the region, handed the victims over to Thai authorities on February 12, diplomats said.
The Ethiopian embassy in India said there were at least 154 premises across the country where foreigners were being held.
In addition to the Ethiopians and Kenyans, the Thai army said it was holding people from Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, Nigeria and Ghana. Others are from the Philippines, Malaysia, Pakistan, China, Indonesia, Nepal, Taiwan, Laos, Brazil, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and India.
They were sent across the border from Myanmar's Myawaddy District into Thailand's Tak province.
According to the army, DKBA forces raided casinos in Myawaddy District, Karen State, in search of trafficked foreign workers.
“On February 11, we identified 261 victims and transferred them to Thai authorities on February 12,” it said.
The victims, many from Africa said that they were forced “to meet monthly earnings targets of up to $50,000. If they failed, they were tortured.
“They were only allowed to sleep for two to three hours a day and worked nonstop. They were kept in dark cells and subjected to continuous abuse,” Thai authorities said.
Among those rescued were 39 women.
A source in Thailand told The EastAfrican that there were 45 missing Kenyans. Now half of them have been found.
There are some Kenyans who made a daring escape into Thailand on Saturday night.
One of the Kenyans, a 30-year-old man, told Thai police that the gang was holding about 1,000 people.
On Wednesday, Kenya’s Principal Secretary for Diaspora Affairs Roseline Njogu urged Kenyans seeking employment opportunities abroad to engage only with licensed and government-approved recruitment agencies.
Speaking at the Nairobi edition of the Diaspora Job Fair in Nairobi, the PS emphasised the importance of verifying job offers through the official website of the National Employment Authority and stressed the need for vigilance to avoid potential exploitation.
Ms Njogu's warning came amid growing concerns about unscrupulous recruitment practices, often linked to international trafficking networks. She warned job seekers of the dangers of dealing with unregulated agencies.
A government statement said dozens of Kenyans and other East Africans had been lured to Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia, ostensibly to work as English teachers, but ended up as overworked, underpaid labourers.
The problem has grown, especially after recruiters hired other Kenyans to persuade compatriots to join them with false promises. The Kenyan embassy in Thailand said it had recently worked with local authorities to rescue up to 140 Kenyans and other East Africans.
"Despite extensive warnings and awareness campaigns, the persistence of these scams remains a concern," the embassy said.
The agents, some of whom are Kenyan, receive large sums of money from unsuspecting Kenyans, as much as Ksh300,000 ($2,322) to obtain visas at the Thai embassy in Nairobi and pay for air tickets.
Kenyans are duped by fake job advertisements in Thailand, especially in customer care, front office, cryptocurrency and teaching, "only to arrive in Thailand and find that there are no such jobs. Some of the Kenyans have ended up destitute in Bangkok, sleeping on the streets and begging for food from strangers," the embassy said.
In December, Emma Gicheha, director of Welfare and Rights Division at the State Department of Diaspora Affairs, acknowledged the problem, describing it as a "headache".
“Thailand is one of the headaches as a government now,” she said. “The other destination that I noted in my report includes human trafficking in India. We are helping a number who are being trafficked to India.”
“Many of our people are stuck there,” Ms Gicheha said, adding that she has seen an increase in the trend of trafficking in these countries.
Fraudsters look for workers who are fluent in the languages of their cyber-fraud targets, usually English and Chinese.
Some are willing to do the work, but others are forced to stay, with release only possible if their families pay large ransoms. Some of those who have escaped have described being tortured.
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