Some 261 foreigners who were handed over to Thai authorities from Myawaddy’s Khyauk Khet suffered unspeakable abuses in Chinese scam operations there.
They represent only a fraction of those who remain enslaved in scam centers across Karen State’s Myawaddy Township along the Thai border and beyond.
Many of those who were rescued showed signs of torture and mental distress.
The 261 foreigners from a dozen countries were shipped to freedom across the Moei River by the junta-aligned Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA), which controls the area, to Phop Phra in Thailand’s Tak Province on Wednesday.
They came from the Philippines, Bangladesh, Brazil, Nepal, Kenya, Laos, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Tanzania, Sri Lanka, Uganda, and Taiwan.
Many had bruises on their legs, arms, upper bodies, and around the eyes when The Irrawaddy visited Phop Phra on Thursday, while some seemed mentally unwell.
A Pakistani national said: “I was subjected to electric shocks every day. Other people were also tortured. Many of them were tortured more badly than I was.”
The torture was carried out by rank-and-file DKBA soldiers at the orders of the Chinese gangs for infractions from failing to meet their scam quotas to refusing to cooperate.
Asked by The Irrawaddy about the alleged involvement of DKBA soldiers, DKBA deputy chief of staff Lieutenant General Saw Shwe Wa pleaded ignorance.
“I do not like torturing and tasing people,” he said. “I don’t know about the torture. I have only served in this position for little more than a month.”
Saw Shwe Wa said the DKBA would investigate and punish the employers and soldiers involved in torture. “We will take action against them,” he said.
He added that the remaining foreigners would be handed over “soon.”
Brig-Gen Sai Kyaw Hla, the commander of the DKBA in Khyauk Khet, said he had told the tortured Pakistani victim that the soldier who tasered him would be punished. Sai Kyaw Hla claimed he gave the victim 10,000 baht in compensation.
One person who is helping to rescue the people trafficked to scam operations said: “According to an escapee who was tortured with a stun gun, there were more than 100 people in the building he stayed. He said the place where he stayed was worse than other places and asked us to help the remaining people.”
According to victims, there are scam centers and casinos in around 20 buildings in the deceptively idyllic valley of Khyauk Khet that are officially known as “Chinese projects.”
The DKBA has reportedly transferred nearly 500 foreigners out of Khyauk Khet over the past four months.
Last week it ordered all Chinese businesses to leave Payathonzu at the Three Pagodas Pass, which it also controls, and most scam operations have now left the town for a nearby location.
For now, the Thai government is focusing on another junta-aligned militia, the Karen Border Guard Force that controls the scam center hub of Shwe Kokko some 30 km north of Khyauk Khet, and trying to obtain arrest warrants for its leaders, including notorious warlord Saw Chit Thu.
