Mizzima

At least 61 Vietnamese citizens were among 200 foreigners recently rescued from cyber scam centres in Myanmar by local authorities, Viet Nam News reported citing a spokesperson of the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ph?m Thu H?ng has confirmed that nearly 200 foreigners, including Vietnamese citizens, have been rescued from cyber scam centres and casinos on the Sino-Myanmar border.

The Vietnamese Embassy in Myanmar and the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam are working with the Myanmar authorities to repatriate the Vietnamese victims.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimated that there were hundreds of thousands of people trapped in cyber scam operations in Southeast Asia, with Myanmar and Cambodia being the two main hubs.

Many of the victims are trafficked into the area and forced to work long hours under threat of violence.

The scams typically involve targeting people online and luring them into investing in fake investment schemes or cryptocurrency scams.

In August 2023, China, Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar agreed to set up a joint police operations centre to tackle cyber scams in the region.

In October 2023, Chinese authorities announced that they had successfully brought back 2,317 scam suspects from northern Myanmar to China.