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Thailand mulls wall at Cambodia border as scam crackdown widens
The crackdown is widening against scam centres responsible for carrying out massive financial fraud out of Southeast Asia, especially those on Thailand's porous borders with Myanmar and Cambodia, where hundreds of thousands of people have been trafficked by criminal gangs in recent years, according to the United Nations.
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Alleged victims of scam centers board a boat to cross the river on the Myanmar-Thai border to be met by Thai Army soldiers as they are repatriated from Kyauk Khet in Myanmar's Myawaddy township on Feb. 12, 2025. More than 260 people, many visibly injured or bruised, were rescued from an illicit scam center along the Myanmar border this week and handed over to Thailand, following a series of crackdowns on the illegal operations. (AFP/-)
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hailand is studying the idea of building a wall on part of its border with Cambodia to prevent illegal crossings, its government said on Monday, as a multinational effort to dismantle a sprawling network of illicit scam centres mounts.
The crackdown is widening against scam centres responsible for carrying out massive financial fraud out of Southeast Asia, especially those on Thailand's porous borders with Myanmar and Cambodia, where hundreds of thousands of people have been trafficked by criminal gangs in recent years, according to the United Nations.
At the weekend, Thai police received 119 Thai nationals from Cambodian authorities after a raid in the town of Poipet pulled more than 215 people out from a scam compound.
"If it is done, how will it be done? What results and how will it solve problems? This is a study," Thai government spokesperson Jirayu Houngsub said of the wall proposal, without specifying its length.
A spokesperson for Cambodia's government declined to comment on the wall proposal. Its foreign ministry spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Thailand and Cambodia share a border of 817 km (508 miles). The Thai defence ministry has previously proposed a wall to block off a 55 km natural crossing between Thailand's Sa Kaeo province and Poipet, which at present is only protected by razor wire.
Telecom fraud centres have been operating for years in Southeast Asia, ensnaring people of multiple countries as far away as West Africa.
They have faced heightened scrutiny after the rescue in January of Chinese actor, Wang Xing, who was lured to Thailand with the promise of a job before being abducted and taken to a scam centre in Myanmar.
In Myanmar's Myawaddy, more than 7,000 foreigners - mostly from China - are waiting to cross from into Thailand, which is coordinating with embassies to to try to streamline their repatriations.
