Battered Myanmar scam center workers wait for deportation to China

Battered and bruised Chinese workers from online scam centers in Myanmar faced an anxious wait to return home, as Beijing and Thailand finalized plans on Wednesday for their repatriation.

Scam compounds have flourished in Myanmar's lawless borderlands, staffed by foreigners, many of whom say they were trafficked and forced to work swindling people around the world.

Many of those involved are Chinese, though people from numerous countries are thought to have been caught up in an industry analysts say is worth billions of dollars a year.

The Karen Border Guard Force (BGF), a militia allied with the Myanmar junta, has said it is preparing to deport 10,000 people linked to the compounds in areas it controls on the border with Thailand.

In a shabby, strip-lit room in a building in Shwe Kokko -- a Myanmar border town known as a hub for scam centers -- dozens of workers, mostly Chinese, sprawled on plastic sheeting, looking exhausted as they awaited their deportation.

An AFP stringer was among a group of journalists taken by the BGF on Tuesday to meet some of the workers.

Some bore shocking bruises -- one man's bottom was completely covered in livid purple, while several showed painful lesions on their lower legs and other had burn injuries.

"I really want to go home," said one Chinese man, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "I wanted to go home as soon as I arrived. I really miss my parents and family."

"I am very nervous," he told AFP.

Naing Maung Zaw, a spokesman for the Karen BGF, said six Chinese men who were supervising the centers had been detained and would be handed over to China as suspects.

"Some workers were tortured and were injured in scam centers that are not in our controlled areas," he told reporters.

- Chinese minister visit -

China's Public Security Assistant Minister Liu Zhongyi is due to meet Thai ministers in Bangkok on Wednesday to agree the return of a first batch of several hundred Chinese nationals.

They will be handed over around 9:30 am Thai time (0230 GMT) on Thursday and taken by truck to the airport in the Thai town of Mae Sot, around 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) south of Shwe Kokko, according to a Thai military source.

Chinese planes will then take them home.The first two flights are expected to arrive in Mae Sot on Wednesday evening, with six more due on Thursday, local authorities said.

Chinese security personnel are expected to accompany the returnees on the planes.

The planned deportations follow Liu's visit on Monday to Shwe Kokko, where he met more than 1,000 of the alleged forced workers.

Last week, another local militia handed 260 alleged scam centre workers from Myanmar to Thai authorities, some of whom told AFP of severe punishments meted out by their Chinese bosses.

Those workers came from a dozen countries, including the Philippines, Ethiopia, Brazil and Nepal.

AFP spoke to some under condition of anonymity. Many bore signs of physical abuse, including one woman who had huge bruises on her left arm and thigh and said she had been electrocuted.

Many workers say they were lured or tricked by promises of high-paying jobs before they were effectively held hostage, their passports taken from them while they were forced to commit online fraud.

Scam centers have proliferated across Southeast Asia in recent years, including in Cambodia and the Philippines.

Authorities and militia groups have made a show of raiding the centers, which have also been linked to drug smuggling and gambling, before releasing and repatriating the foreigners inside.

© Agence France-Presse