Carrying their belongings and stories of hell, the group alleged they were trapped in one of the region’s notorious scam compounds, where they were subject to frequent abuse and forced to scam people around the world.
Shazab, who worked as a team leader at the compound he was allegedly sold to, managed a team of 12 people, which he claims was tasked to scam $10,000 each day from online “clients”.
According to almost a dozen people interviewed on the border in February, victims were forced to work more than 15 hours a day without payment, and subject to frequent abuse.
Instead, he says, his phone and passport were confiscated and he was unwittingly trafficked across the border to a scam centre in Myanmar.
About 7,000 people have been rescued from allegedly illegal call centre operations in Myanmar and were waiting to be transferred to Thailand, prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said this month.
