DESPITE a weeks-long multinational crackdown, scam centers along the Thai-Myanmar border are still operating with up to 100,000 people working there, the top police general leading Thailand’s operations against the fraud compounds told Reuters.

Thailand is fronting a regional effort to dismantle scam centers along its borders, which are part of a Southeast Asian network of illegal facilities that generate billions of dollars every year, often using people trafficked there by criminal gangs, according to the United Nations.

Based on early assessments of some of the 5,000 people pulled out of sprawling scam hubs in Myanmar’s Myawaddy area, hundreds went there voluntarily, said Police General Thatchai Pitaneelaboot, calling for careful investigations among nationals of over a dozen countries to winnow out criminals.

“Many people use Thailand as a pathway to sneak themselves into Myawaddy to find work, and this is not just the call center gangs but also online gambling work and other professions,” Mr. Thatchai said in an interview.

His comments run counter to widespread reports that scam center workers in and around Myawaddy were victims, lured to go there by criminal bosses.

Jason Tower, an analyst with the US Institute of Peace and an expert on regional scam centers, said that many people who willingly traveled to areas such as Myawaddy were trapped in conducting scamming operations.

“Many did go in willingly, only discovering that they had been trafficked later,” he said.

Several former scam workers describe being trapped in the compounds, where they were forced to trick strangers online into transferring large amounts of money, often pretending to be romantic interests.

Although these scam centers have operated for years, they came under renewed scrutiny following the abduction of a Chinese actor Wang Xing in Thailand in January, who was later rescued from Myawaddy.

The incident sparked a social media firestorm in China, and Beijing dispatched officials to Thailand to coordinate operations targeted at breaking up scam hubs like Myawaddy and rescuing scores of its citizens, many of whom now have been flown home.

“Since the Wang Xing case, there were 3,600 foreigners who traveled Mae Sot, and we did not find one who was tricked or coerced to come,” Mr. Thatchai said, citing information gathered by police checkpoints set up in the Thai district bordering Myawaddy.

Among some 260 people from 20 nationalities who were sent from Myawaddy to Thailand in February as the crackdown gathered steam, most were not coerced, according to initial investigations conducted by Thai authorities, Mr. Thatchai said.

“These people went there voluntarily,” Mr. Thatchai said, adding that he is waiting on information from countries including China and India that have repatriated hundreds of their nationals on whether they had been trafficked to scam centers in Myawaddy.

MULTINATIONAL COORDINATION
Mr. Thatchai said the crackdown so far has only affected a fraction of the vast operations in Myawaddy, which lies across a narrow river from the Thai town of Mae Sot.

“It could be up to 50,000 or 100,000 people that are still left because we are still seeing their operations,” he said, based on Thai police intelligence as well as information gathered by Chinese authorities, who have identified at least 3,700 criminals continuing to operate in the area.

Since February, more than 5,200 people have been extricated from scamming facilities in and around Myawaddy, according to Thai police citing Myanmar authorities. Over 3,500 have been sent back to their home countries via Thailand, which has also cut off electricity, internet and fuel supplies to the area.

With scam workers hailing from a wide range of countries, Mr. Thatchai said he is pushing for a multinational coordination center to repatriate, investigate and share information to prosecute criminals involved in the fraud operations.

Suspected criminals extricated from Myawaddy and other scam hubs should be prosecuted in their home countries, and the Thai police are ready to help wherever necessary, Mr. Thatchai said.

The main focus of Thai authorities currently is to help coordinate the return of scam center victims to their home countries, with thousands of former workers still stuck in limbo on the Thai-Myanmar border, including some who are struggling to find their way back because of a lack of funds.

“We have to discharge people as quickly as possible,” Mr. Thatchai said. “So that the Myanmar authorities and ethnic armed groups can conduct more crackdowns.” — Reuters

SEOUL — South Korea said on Wednesday it will tighten property market trading rules in wealthy parts of Seoul to stem any speculative transactions that have been boosting home prices in the country’s capital.

The fresh measures target some of the wealthiest districts of Seoul including Gangnam, Seocho, Songpa and Yongsan, where any apartment transactions will need a prior permit from the local council until Sept. 30 this year, the land ministry said in a statement.

The council can prohibit apartment transactions unless the buyer intends to make the property their primary place of residence.

The move reverses Seoul’s decision in February to exempt parts of Seoul from the land transaction permit zone, which saw both sales and rent prices starting to increase after the measure despite tighter mortgage curbs and sluggish domestic demand in general.

Wednesday’s statement also said mortgage rules would be tightened further at local banks, especially for people owning multiple homes.

Median apartment prices in Seoul have doubled in the past five years and exceeded 1 billion won ($689,085) for the first time last year, pressuring the government to release extra homes in the metropolitan Seoul area in a bid to ease demand. — Reuters

LONDON – Bill Gates is personally lobbying Trump administration officials to keep funding health programs worldwide, from childhood vaccination to HIV treatment, and warning that his foundation cannot step in to fill gaps, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Gates, the billionaire Microsoft MSFT.O co-founder turned global health philanthropist, met with the National Security Council as well as Republican and Democratic lawmakers in recent weeks to press that case, the sources said.

Soon after his January 20 inauguration, President Donald Trump moved to dismantle the US Agency for International Development, cutting more than 80% of contracts and freezing billions of dollars for everything from emergency food assistance to malaria prevention.

The Trump administration, led by the State Department, is reviewing what kinds of foreign aid will remain under its “America First” policy, with a list of around 30 global health projects for consideration, one of the sources said.

“Bill was recently in Washington D.C. meeting with decision makers to discuss the life-saving impact of US international assistance and the need for a strategic plan to protect the world’s most vulnerable while safeguarding America’s health and security,” said a spokesperson for the Gates Foundation, his charitable organization.

Gates told the officials he met with that his foundation cannot replace the role of the US government, the sources said. Gates Foundation directors have also said publicly that no foundation has that capability.

At the same time, many Gates Foundation top priorities like eradicating polio and fighting malaria will be hit by the US pullback. In such cases, the Foundation would need to decide if and how it can keep those programs on track, one source close to the organization said.

Gates’ discussions focused on organizations such as Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, as well as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, among others. They are on the shortlist for review by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump. The US gives around $300 million annually to Gavi, and more than $1 billion to the Global Fund.

Several projects under the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) are also on the review shortlist, the source said.

The Global Fund declined to comment for this story, and Gavi said only that it had not had a termination notice for its main US funding contract. The White House did not respond to requests for comment.

USAID terminated more than 5,200 grants and contracts, a State Department spokesperson said, adding that critical program awards remain active.

“USAID continues to support the US coordinated, interagency response to the Ebola outbreak in Uganda; to provide lifesaving HIV care and treatment services; to provide emergency assistance in conflict zones; and to support key American strategic partners,” the spokesperson said.

At the National Security Council, Gates also pushed for the US to continue to support the World Health Organization, which Trump moved to exit on day one of his administration, as well as efforts to eradicate polio.

Established in 2000, the Gates Foundation has an annual budget of more than $8 billion. Gates has met regularly with security officials in previous administrations on key areas like malaria or COVID-19. He met with Trump at a dinner in December, before the inauguration, and the White House in early February after the USAID cuts were first announced, according to an NBC report. — Reuters