Thai foreign ministry announced on Sunday that over two hundred Thai nationals are being rescued from the turmoil and relocated to Thailand via China due to the escalating conflict between junta soldiers and armed ethnic-minority groups in northern Myanmar.
The Myanmar military, which seized power in a 2021 coup, is facing significant challenges in maintaining control over various towns and military outposts across the country. In the northern regions, they are contending with a substantial offensive launched last month by an alliance of three ethnic-minority groups and pro-democracy fighters.
The Thai foreign ministry revealed that a group of 266 Thais, alongside an unspecified number of Filipinos and Singaporeans, is undergoing evacuation from Laukkaing in northern Shan State to the Myanmar-China border with the assistance of Myanmar authorities.
Upon reaching China, the evacuees will be granted entry and subsequently transported via two chartered flights from the Chinese city of Kunming to Bangkok. The foreign ministry emphasized that stringent screenings for human trafficking and criminal records will be conducted upon their arrival in Thailand, without specifying the exact timing of the repatriation flights, noting only that the group is en route to the Chinese border on Sunday.
Previously, Thai authorities had noted that individuals trapped in Myanmar might include victims of human trafficking and those associated with telecom fraud gangs. The region, including Myanmar, has become a hotspot for telecom and online fraud, according to the United Nations, with criminal gangs trafficking hundreds of thousands of people and coercing them into working in illicit operations.
