Chinese businesses have deserted Payathonzu, a Myanmar border town in Karen State adjacent to Thailand’s Kanchanaburi province, days after Thailand cut off power, oil and internet services to put the squeeze on criminal gangs, according to Thai security sources.
The Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), which controls the area, earlier ordered illicit businesses to leave by Feb. 28. The disconnection of utility services from Thailand, which began on Feb. 5, reportedly affected more than 50,000 people in Payathonzu.
Owners of four buildings in Payathonzu said Chinese people had rented the properties for longer than one year and paid 200,000 to 800,000 baht (about US$6,000 to $24,000) a month. Their rental agreements were renewed every six months.
The tenants renovated the buildings to turn them into offices and residences and had guards strongly secure the properties around the clock.
The owners said they could not access the buildings where 200 to 300 Chinese people were believed to be living. Chinese employees prepared food for everyone at the buildings.
In the latest development, Chinese tenants removed communication equipment, electrical appliances and air-conditioners and left the buildings as the local property owners terminated their lease agreements.
Local people said the Chinese tenants had moved from Payathonzu to another location about 10 km away.
Markets in Payathonzu were not crowded with Chinese people anymore and Chinese businesses have deserted the town, they said.
Chinese people earlier bought and rented numerous buildings and shops in Payathonzu to operate restaurants, barber shops and game centers, allegedly as fronts of their call-center operations. There were more than 200 such shops and almost all are now closed.
Payathonzu is one of three sites targeted by Thai authorities in the crackdown on call-center scam operations that employ thousands of foreigners, many of them trafficking victims. Power and internet services have also been cut off to Karen State’s Myawaddy, opposite Mae Sot in Thailand’s Tak province, and Shan State’s Tachileik, opposite Mae Sai in Chiang Rai.
On Wednesday, 261 foreigners were released in Myawaddy and brought across the border to Phop Phra district in Tak. Thai authorities have said that as many as 10,000 people could be released in the coming days and weeks if the utility cuts force the illegal businesses to close.
This story first appeared in the Bangkok Post.
