By Panarat Thepgumpanat and Panu Wongcha-um
BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand and China will work together to combat fast-growing networks of illegal call centres along the Thai border with Myanmar and Cambodia, often staffed by trafficked workers, that aim to defraud people in phone and online scams.
Southeast Asia – especially border areas between Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia – has become a hub for telecom and other online fraud since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the United Nations, which says hundreds of thousands of people have been trafficked to work in scam centres.
Thai police said on Friday that a coordination centre would be set up at the national police headquarters in Bangkok and Chinese authorities plan to set up another one in Thailand’s Mae Sot district, which borders Myanmar’s Myawaddy, a major hub for the scam call centres.
“This centre (in Bangkok) will work together (with China) to investigate and combat…
