CHIANG RAI, THAILAND – A 23-year-old woman from northern Thailand said she escaped a fraud network in Cambodia and returned to her home province, where more than 30 Thai nationals were believed to have been held in the same compound and forced into online scams.
Return to Chiang Rai
At the headquarters of the Chiang Rai provincial police, the young woman was formally received after her return and handed back to her family.
The commander of the provincial police, Pol Maj Gen Manop Senakul, praised the joint operation by the authorities that made her repatriation possible.
Facebook offer turns into trap
The 23-year-old, identified as Napassara, said she fell into the hands of human traffickers through a fake job advertisement on social media.
She had previously worked as an admin employee in Bangkok and, after losing her job, applied via Facebook for an alleged office position in Sa Kaeo province with a promised monthly salary of 20,000 baht.
Journey into the trap
According to her account, on 12 February she met five to six other applicants and the recruiters at a shopping mall in Bangkok’s Lat Phrao district.
Instead of being taken to an office, they were transported to Sa Kaeo, where they were forced to cross the border into Cambodia on foot through a sugarcane field.
Forced march across the border
Because of a physical condition that limited her mobility, she said she had great difficulty moving through the field before being seized by Cambodians.
She was taken to Poipet and brought into a building that she said served as a base for a suspected scam call centre.
Life inside the scam complex
In the building, by her account, 30 to 40 Thais were locked up, and their identity documents and mobile phones were confiscated.
They were forced to scan their faces through banking apps to enable repeated money transfers, and were threatened if they resisted or tried to escape.
Desperate attempt to start a fire
According to Napassara, a group of detainees tried to create chaos and flee by setting part of the building on fire.
Some reportedly managed to run back across the border into Thailand, while others, including Napassara, continued to be held.
Moved to casino compound
On 16 February, she said she was transferred to the Grand Pailin Casino & Resort in Pailin, near Poipet.
There she received her phone and identity documents back and was able to contact her father using the hotel’s internet and ask the Thai authorities for help.