More repatriation flights from China have arrived in Tak's Mae Sot district to take home Chinese nationals rescued from call centre scams in Myanmar.
The chartered flights operated by China Southern Airlines were to repatriate the Chinese nationals from yesterday to Sunday. There were to be six flights leaving Tak yesterday and today. In total, 456 Chinese nationals will be flown back each day during this period.
On Sunday, a final flight will depart Tak with 71 Chinese nationals on board. All flights are heading to Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu province.
Before boarding the flights, the Chinese nationals will have travelled from Myawaddy where they were rescued and crossed over to Thailand via the second Thai-Myanmar Bridge at Ban Wang Takian in Mae Sot district. Beijing sent the first repatriation flight last month.
Meanwhile, the opposition said the government's crackdown on scammers operating along the border will be futile as long as high-ranking Thai officials who allowed them to flourish aren't brought to justice.
People's Party deputy leader, Rangsiman Rome, said the cuts to electricity, internet and fuel supplies to areas hosting suspected scam compounds in Myanmar may have slowed, but not wiped out, their operations. Mr Rangsiman, chairman of the House standing committee on security and border affairs, said he had heard that many scam compounds are up and running again, despite the recent arrest of over 7,000 suspects believed to be involved with scam networks in Myanmar.
He said the arrests only took out a small fraction of the networks' workers. As long as the masterminds and their enablers -- which include senior Thai government officials -- aren't brought to justice, other scam operations will simply pop up elsewhere, he said. "The 7,000 [suspects arrested] could end up going back to the business," he said.
