An anti-human trafficking organisation has petitioned Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin to help 21 Moroccan citizens who have fallen victim to a scammer gang operating on the Thai-Myanmar border, a source said on Sunday.
According to Exodus Road, the Moroccan Embassy in Bangkok sought assistance from various agencies, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Royal Thai Army, the Department of Special Investigation, and the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok, through an official letter on May 17.
However, Exodus Road said there has been no progress since then, so it had now decided to seek help from the PM.
According to the source, the Moroccans were lured by a Chinese transnational crime syndicate, who told them they would be working at an e-commerce business in Thailand, with a starting salary of about copy,000 (36,700 baht) per month.
However, shortly after arriving in Thailand in February, the group was taken to Hpa Lu village in Myanmar’s Myawaddy district, which is located across from Phob Phra district in Tak province.
There, the source said, the victims are kept in a room, where they are routinely tortured. They were also told to ask their relatives for $6,000-8,000 (220,000-295,000 baht) in ransom, or risk being sold off to another gang.
Five victims managed to get their relatives to pay the ransom in April, but they remain in the gang’s custody, the source said.
In addition to petitioning Mr Srettha, Exodus Road also sent a letter to Fair Party MP Kannavee Suebsang, who had previously assisted in the evacuation of refugees stuck in Laukkaing in Shan state, when it was besieged by rebel forces.
(Source : Bangkok post)