Nearly 300 Indians repatriated from Myanmar scam centers

Nearly 300 Indians flew home through Thailand on Monday after being released from scam centers in Myanmar, officials in the kingdom said, as part of efforts to shut down the illegal online fraud operations.

Authorities in Myanmar, under pressure from ally China, have cracked down in recent weeks on the scam compounds that have flourished in the country's lawless borderlands.

Around 7,000 workers from at least two dozen countries have been freed, the majority of them Chinese, but many have been languishing in squalid conditions in temporary holding camps on the Myanmar-Thai border.

A group of Indian officials crossed into Myanmar to accompany seven buses taking the freed Indian nationals -- as well as three more carrying their luggage -- to Mae Sot airport in northwest Thailand.

Criminal industry

The Indian government sent a C-17 transport plane to carry the 266 men and 17 women back home, with a second batch of 257 due to be flown out on Tuesday.

China has repatriated more than 2,000 of its nationals freed from Myanmar scam centers through Thailand since the three countries began their crackdown late last month.

Scam centers have sprung up in Myanmar's border areas in recent years as part of a criminal industry worth billions of dollars a year.

Thousands of foreign workers staff the centers, trawling social media for victims to fleece, often through romance or investment cons.

Many workers say they were lured or tricked into taking the work and suffered beatings and abuse.

But China has so far treated its repatriated workers as criminal suspects, clapping them in handcuffs on their return home.