Portugal Colonial - Chinese workers from Myanmar scam centres heading home via Thailand

Thousands of foreigners are expected to be freed and returned from scam compounds in Myanmar in coming weeks, starting with 600 Chinese nationals over the next three days.

The compounds run by criminal gangs are staffed by foreigners, many who say they were trafficked and forced to work running internet scams swindling people around the world.

Many of those involved are Chinese, and Beijing has stepped up pressure on Myanmar and Thailand to shut the centres down.

Two double-decker coaches delivered a first group of workers across the border from Myanmar onto the tarmac of an airport in the western Thai town of Mae Sot on Thursday morning.

Dozens of people, seemingly all men, boarded a special China Southern Airlines plane directly from the buses, mounting the steps after being checked by an official with a clipboard.

The plane, which had flown in from the Chinese city of Nanjing, took off shortly after 11:30 am (0430 GMT) for the border city of Xishuangbanna.

A Thai border task force official told AFP that 200 more Chinese nationals are expected to be returned on Thursday, crossing from Myanmar in groups of 50.

China has arranged 16 flights over the next three days to ferry 600 of its nationals home from Mae Sot.

It is not clear what fate awaits them, but Chinese security personnel are expected to accompany the returnees on the planes.

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

"Two hundred Chinese nationals involved in online gambling, telecom fraud, and other crimes were handed over in accordance with legal procedures through Thailand this morning, in the spirit of humanitarianism and friendship between countries," the Myanmar junta said in a statement.

- Beatings -

The release follows several visits by China's Public Security Assistant Minister Liu Zhongyi to Bangkok and the border in recent weeks to arrange the repatriation.

Scam centres have proliferated across Southeast Asia in recent years, including in Cambodia and the Philippines, as the value of the industry has boomed to billions of dollars a year.

Many workers say they were lured or tricked into the centres 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.

Many have said they suffered beatings and other abuse at the hands of their supervisors, and AFP has interviewed numerous workers freed from centres with severe bruising and burns.

A local Myanmar militia last week handed over 260 scam centre workers from a dozen countries, including the Philippines, Ethiopia, Brazil and Nepal, to Thailand.

R.J.Fidalgo--PC