The Myanmar regime’s second-in-command has held talks with a Thai military delegation to discuss a crackdown on border scam operations amid mounting pressure from China.
Soe Win hosted a Thai delegation led by General Direk Bongkarn, head of the Thai Army’s Neighboring Countries Coordination Center, in Naypyitaw on Tuesday.
Also present at the meeting was regime No.3 Lieutenant General Kyaw Swar Lin.
Junta media reported the two sides discussed boosting government and military cooperation to combat human trafficking and online scams at the border, information exchange for border stability, and exchange visits by senior military officers.
The meeting took place as Myawaddy, a Myanmar border town notorious as a hub for scam centers run by Chinese criminal syndicates, made headlines again earlier this month for human trafficking. The case of Chinese actor Wang Xing – who was lured to Thailand, trafficked across the border, and forced to train in a Myawaddy scam center – highlighted the hundreds of other Chinese nationals who have suffered the same fate. Reports of the trafficking went viral in China, sparking a wave of booking cancellations by Chinese tourists to Thailand. China’s embassies scrambled to issue travel alerts while its foreign minister, Wang Yi, urged cooperation from ASEAN countries to crack down on the border scams.
Myawaddy is under the jurisdiction of the junta-aligned Karen State Border Guard Force (BGF), whose chief, Saw Chit Thu, is notorious for overseeing online scam operations and casinos on the border.
Amid mounting Chinese pressure for a crackdown, junta Transport and Communications Minister Mya Tun Oo pledged to cooperate with Thailand to combat transnational call center gangs during last week’s ASEAN Digital Ministers’ Meeting in Bangkok.
However, on Monday the regime issued a statement implying that Thailand was supplying the border scam compounds with electricity, internet and other things needed to run their operations.
The next day, Myanmar, China, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam decided to launch phase two of their crackdown on telecoms fraud and border crime during a meeting of the Lancang-Mekong Integrated Law Enforcement and Security Cooperation Center in Kunming, China, according to Xinhua.
The first phase, from August to December, saw over 70,000 suspects prosecuted in 160 cases of mainly telecom fraud, and the rescue of over 160 victims, it added.