The junta-affiliated Karen State Border Guard Force (BGF) has warned foreigners involved in online scam operations in Myawaddy Township on the border with Thailand to leave by October or face punitive action.
“All foreigners doing online business around Kayin [Karen] State’s Myawaddy Township must leave by October 31. Foreigners who illegally cross the border must leave the country by the way they came. If found after October 31, effective action will be taken,” reads the English version of the trilingual warning written in Burmese, Chinese and English, and issued on May 3.
The BGF said the warning would be posted at all workplaces employing foreigners.
The ultimatum was aimed at the growing number of online scam and gambling operations in some parts of Myawaddy including Shwe Kokko, which was intended as a “new city” project, BGF spokesman Major Naing Maung Zaw told The Irrawaddy.
Earlier this year, the BGF summoned online business owners in Myawaddy Township to a meeting and told them to leave immediately, but the order fell on deaf ears, he said.
“We don’t accept those businesses. We have repeatedly told them to leave. But they remain, and we have therefore issued an official warning. If they don’t leave by the deadline, we will arrest and send them back. We will handle it effectively,” he said.
The BGF has transferred many foreigners to the custody of their respective embassies, he added.
“We have sent many back through relevant embassies. We have evidence of that. The Indian Embassy has thanked us for transferring Indian citizens. Lately, we have been working hard to fight online scam operations,” he said.
Tens of thousands of foreigners are involved in online scam and gambling operations in Myawaddy Township, according to observers.
BGF disciplinary officer Lieutenant Pyo Wai Khant said he has received instructions from senior officers that the warning must be posted at all workplaces.
Myawaddy has been under the international spotlight due to the presence of two major scam centers, located in the north and south of the township. Both Shwe Kokko, in the north of Myawaddy, and KK Park in the south are home to operations engaged in serious criminal activities such as online financial fraud, human trafficking and torture.
A report issued on April 22 by the United States Institute of Peace named BGF leader Colonel Saw Chit Thu, Mote Thone and Tin Win as the key individuals responsible for supporting Chinese crime groups.
According to the report, Saw Chit Thu and Tin Win host, support and profit from scam compounds near Myawaddy, including Shwe Kokko, Jinxin, Hengsheng and Dongfanghui, the latter of which was operated by the now defunct Kokang BGF Fully Light Group. Also under their control is the notorious KK Park Project, which has been heavily involved in scams targeting Americans, it says.
