People from various countries, who were working in the KK Park compound in Myanmar, travel in a boat across the Moei river to cross over from Myanmar to Thailand, as seen from Mae Sot District, Tak Province area on October 24, 2025. (Photo by Sarot Meksophawannakul / THAI NEWS PIX / AFP)
Bangkok: More than 1,000 people, mostly Chinese, have fled from Myanmar into Thailand this week, Thai authorities said on Friday, after the Myanmar military raided one of the country's largest scam centres.
Sprawling cyberscam hubs, where fraudsters swindle victims through online cons, have flourished along Myanmar's loosely governed border during its years-long civil war.
(FILES) This handout satellite photo from Planet Labs PBC taken on September 18, 2025 and received on September 30, 2025 shows the KK Park complex in Myanmar's eastern Myawaddy township along the Moei River facing Mae Sot district (top and R) in Thailand's border province of Tak. (Photo by Handout / 2025 Planet Labs PBC / AFP)
While some scammers are trafficked into the often-fortified compounds, experts say others work voluntarily, hoping to earn more in the multibillion-dollar illicit industry than they can at home.
Around 40 people who had left the KK Park scam compound, including Taiwanese and others from several African nations, took small boats across the Moei river to Thailand on Friday, local officials told AFP.
Thai security personnel waiting on the other side searched their luggage and documents while people handed over their cell phones and loaded into the back of trucks, video published by AFP showed.
(FILES) This aerial photo taken on September 17, 2025 shows the KK Park complex in Myanmar's eastern Myawaddy township, as pictured from Mae Sot district in Thailand's border province of Tak. (Photo by Lillian SUWANRUMPHA / AFP)
Thailand's Tak provincial office said 1,049 people had crossed from Myanmar into Mae Sot district from Wednesday to Friday morning -- up from the 677 who had fled KK Park as of Thursday morning.
Nationals from India, Pakistan, Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand and more than a dozen other countries were among them, the office said in a statement.
Thailand's Immigration Bureau said most were Chinese and men.
Myanmar's junta said Monday it raided KK Park, located just across the border from Thailand, and seized Starlink satellite internet devices.
An AFP investigation revealed last week that the use of the devices had grown rapidly at the compounds in recent months.
Elon Musk's SpaceX, which operates Starlink, said Wednesday that it had disabled more than 2,500 Starlink internet devices at Myanmar's scam centres.
Sawanit Suriyakul Na Ayutthaya, deputy governor of Tak province, told AFP on Friday that authorities believed most of those who had entered Thailand were from KK Park, but they were still investigating.
He said Thursday that the arrivals would be screened to determine whether they were victims of human trafficking. Otherwise, they could be prosecuted for illegal border crossing, he said.
