China Repatriates Trafficked Workers From Myanmar

Hundreds of individuals who had been working in Myanmar's notorious scam centers have departed on evacuation flights organized by China, as reported by Jonathan Head and Lulu Luo for BBC News.

These flights mark Beijing's latest efforts in its battle against the centers, which are estimated to hold hundreds of thousands of human trafficking victims. I Photo: Xinhua

These flights mark Beijing's latest efforts in its battle against the centers, which are estimated to hold hundreds of thousands of human trafficking victims.

China has intensified pressure on both Myanmar's military government and armed groups to shut down these centers, as money from them has flowed into both criminal activities and Myanmar's civil war.

However, last year, victories by ethnic insurgents along Myanmar's border with China resulted in the closure of some of the most notorious scam centers.

United Nations (UN) estimates released last year suggest that as many as 120,000 individuals had been trafficked into centers in Myanmar, with an additional 100,000 in Cambodia.

Thousands of people, including many Chinese victims of human trafficking, were handed over to the Chinese police.

This recent group was discovered further south, working in an area controlled by ethnic Karen insurgents, both supporting and opposing Myanmar's military rulers who seized power in a coup in February 2021.

The repatriation flights, originating from the town of Mae Sot on the Thai border, carried approximately 150 individuals each and marked the beginning of a series of flights expected to transport up to 1,000 people to China, as reported by the German news agency Deutsche Welle (DW).s

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