Over 200 foreigners rescued from scam centres still stranded along Myanmar-Thailand border

More than 200 foreign nationals rescued from cyber scam centres in eastern Myanmar’s Karen State remain stranded along the war-torn country’s border with Thailand, according to a local armed group overseeing their repatriation.

For years criminal networks have trafficked hundreds of thousands of people to scam compounds across Southeast Asia, including many along the Thai-Myanmar border, where victims are forced to work in illegal online schemes, according to the U.N.

The Karen Border Guard Force (BGF), which rebranded itself as the Karen National Army in 2024, is an armed group that claims to have repatriated more than 8,000 foreign nationals after rescuing them from scam centres in Myanmar’s Myawaddy Township in recent months.