Thailand will cut electricity to eastern Myanmar border zones being used as bases for online scam centers, money laundering and human trafficking, government officials said on Tuesday.
Scam centers have proliferated in lawless corners of Southeast Asia following the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020, when many casinos turned to online fraud operations, often staffed by unsuspecting job-seekers lured by false offers of work, to make up for lost gamblers.
The rescue of a Chinese actor from a fraud operation in eastern Myanmar last month raised international alarm about the dangers, scared off Chinese tourists from visiting Thailand and ramped up pressure on governments to take action to rein in the businesses.
Scam centers have impacted Thailand’s security, Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Phumtham Wechayachai told reporters.
“Gradual cuts might be too slow. Today, I’m ordering the NSC to direct PEA to cut power immediately. This requires immediate action, not bureaucratic delays,” said Phumtham, referring to the National Security Council and the Provincial Electricity Authority.
The cuts, which will include fuel supplies, will go into effect at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, he said, and will affect five locations — two in Kayin state’s Myawaddy township, one in Three Pagodas Pass near the two countries' shared border, and two in Shan state’s Tachileik township.
Scam centers in eastern Myanmar’s Karen state have run on electricity and internet services from neighboring Thailand for years and this is not the first time that Thai authorities have raised the possibility of cutting off the utilities.
Half a million victims
Researchers estimate that scam centers in Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia, which are often run by ethnic Chinese gangsters, have raked in billions of dollars.
Phumtham Wechayachai told reporters that more than 500,000 Thai nationals fell victim to the scams between June 2022 and June 2024, losing more than 60 billion baht (US$1.8 billion).
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The rights group Justice for Myanmar said in a report last year that governments and businesses across the region were enabling cyber scam operations by failing to take action against the profitable flows they generated.
Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, speaking with her defense minister, vowed decisive action.
“No hesitation .… Once we clearly understand the border situation, we can cut the power right away,” she said.
“What has happened has caused significant harm to the Thai people and the country’s reputation,” the prime minister added, referring to a string of high-profile human trafficking cases that made headlines across Asia and damaged Thailand’s tourist industry.
“Legal proceedings are inevitable. We cannot let this slide as it’s a serious national issue concerning all countries. If we don’t act after making arrests, we’ll lose credibility,” Paetongtarn added.
The Thai prime minister heads to China Wednesday for talks with President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Li Qiang. A spokesperson said Paetongtarn would discuss the issue of scam centers with Chinese leaders.
Myawaddy electricity cut
As the Thai government announced the cuts, residents of Myawaddy township told RFA Burmese that the Myit Shwe Thaung Ying Company — owned by Major Saw Tin Win of the Karen Border Guard Force and which was known to supply Thai electricity to scam facilities in the town — shut down its output at around 7 p.m. on Tuesday.
A woman living in Myawaddy’s Kyun Taw Ward No. 5 said electricity was cut off from the area around the One Gate Casino to KK Park, near Mae Htaw Tha Lay village.
“Now, Major Saw Tin Win’s power supply has been completely cut off from One Gate,” said the woman who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns. “I heard that the BGF electricity office has shut it down,” she added, referring to the Border Guard Force.
When contacted by RFA about the power outage, Lt. Col. Nai Maung Zaw, the security and discipline officer of the BGF in Myawaddy, noted that Thailand “has been cutting off electricity [intermittently] for ... four or five months now.”
“To address this, we rely on generators and solar panels for power,” he said. “I believe the new [Thai] prime minister is implementing additional measures due to external pressure ... I worry that innocent people will suffer from these power cuts.”
Sources in Myawaddy said that the Thai government’s cuts won’t affect ordinary people.
“Only Chinese facilities, BGF areas, and game centers get electricity from Thailand, so the blackout won’t bother us,” said a resident, who also declined to be named.
Junta administrative offices in the city, Myawaddy Hospital No. 1, and Friendship Bridges No. 1 and 2 still have access to power, the residents said.
They said that the area hasn’t had reliable access to electricity, telecommunications and the internet since early 2023, due to fighting between the military and allied forces of the ethnic Karen National Liberation Army.
Attempts by RFA to contact junta spokesperson Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun went unanswered Tuesday.
Chinese security official visits
Many human trafficking victims have said they were lured by false job offers then forced to defraud people by convincing them over the phone or online to put money into bogus investments.
The Thai government’s decision to cut electricity to the scam centers follows a visit this month by Liu Zhongyi, assistant minister of China’s Ministry of Public Security.
Liu traveled to the Thai border town of Mae Sot, opposite the eastern Myanmar zones run by a pro-junta militia where the scam centers have proliferated, and discussed solutions with Thai security agencies, media reported.
China, which is also home to many of the victims of the scammers, has been organizing action to tackle the problem with its southern neighbors, most recently at a meeting in the city of Kunming, in China’s Yunnan southern border province.
Thai opposition lawmaker Rangsiman Rome told a security committee meeting that the evidence clearly showed that Thailand was “serving as a battery for call center gang networks.”
He also referred to a May 2024 Cabinet resolution requesting provincial utility providers to cut cross-border electricity and internet services to combat drug trafficking and cybercrime.
But the PEA still supplies power to five locations in Myanmar including two in the Myawaddy township, opposite Mae Sot, which is home to the notorious Shwe Kokko Special Economic Zone, operated by China’s Yatai International Holding Group and Myanmar’s Chit Linn Myaing Company, of the pro-junta militia force.
U.S. authorities have identified the area as a hub for criminal activity.
Translated by Aung Naing. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.
BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated news organization.