Scam city: The ‘Garden of Hell’ – a large compound known as KK Garden in Myawaddy where many are trapped into slavery. — Bernama
BANGKOK: Five Malaysian job seekers who claimed to have been duped into travelling to Myanmar and forced to work as cyber scammers have been rescued and are waiting to return home.
On Feb 3, a team from the Thai army near KK Garden in Myawaddy, Myanmar, rescued Adam Iskandar Tukiman, 20, Akmar Hamsan, 19, Kamil Abd Hamid, 25, Nur Fitriani Abdullah, 19, and Lee Zhi Cong, who were being held there.
Those rescued are expected to arrive in Malaysia by Feb 15. One other Malaysian, whose name is being withheld for his safety, has still not been rescued.
He was supposed to have escaped last Tuesday but failed to make it to the rendezvous point across the river, where the Thai authorities were waiting.
Teruntum assemblyman Sim Chon Siang, who has been instrumental in securing the release of 91 Malaysians in Cambodia and Thailand, said the 33-year-old man had been forced to work for a scamming ring in KK Garden, a large compound that hosts multiple companies.
It is located along the Moei River in the Thai border town of Mae Sot.
“It is learned that he has been here for over a year, and he was badly treated and beaten.
“We hope he can be saved in two or three days. They (the Thai army) are working to locate him,” he said.
Sim, who was in Thailand to help repatriate the victims from Myanmar, said it would be his last trip to rescue trafficked Malaysians.
A Bangkok-based Malaysian businessman known as Muhammad Shaifuddin Lai Abdullah has been helping Sim with information and support.
As of Jan 27, the Malaysian police have received 262 reports of 336 Malaysians who have fallen for job scams and are now being held in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.
However, Sim said the number is likely to be an underestimate, as victims he rescued reported that more than 1,000 Malaysians were still being held in KK Garden.
He also said most of the scam victims from Malaysia tend to be Chinese, but the focus seems to have shifted to recruiting Malays and Indians as well.
According to reports, many of the centres seem to have links to Chinese businessmen.
Like other victims before them, Adam and his friends, who have at most secondary school education, said they were recruited to work at a hotel in Singapore or Bangkok for US$1,100 (RM4,735) a month, only to be smuggled into Myanmar.
“At that time, my mother was unwell, so I wanted a job that paid well,” said Adam when asked why he agreed to follow his friend.
His father is a grass cutter, while his mother, who is blind, is a housewife. He is the sixth of 11 siblings.
Adam said they had to work from 8am to midnight encouraging people on Facebook to click on malicious links. They would be punished if they failed to meet their quota.Victims have reported worse treatment, such as starvation and torture, at the hands of supervisors at the scamming centres.
One of them is Goi Zhan Feng, a 23-year-old Malaysian who was lured to Bangkok through a love scam and ended up in Myanmar in January 2022, where he was beaten and died of his injuries four months later.
While most of the cases involving Malaysians and trafficking seemed to be in Cambodia, Myanmar has been gaining notoriety as a hub for illegal activity, thanks to Covid-19 and political instability.
Sim said more Malaysians will fall for job scams and love scams and be trafficked to another country unless something is done to increase awareness.
Meanwhile, Deputy Human Resources Minister Mustapha Sakmud urged people to check with the ministry’s Manpower Department before accepting jobs abroad.
This is important to avoid becoming a victim of fraud or human trafficking, he said. — Bernama
