Hong Kong, Thai officials in talks to combat Southeast Asian scam centres

HONG KONG: Hong Kong officials held rare talks in Bangkok this week with Thai counterparts to find ways to bring home those lured from the Asian financial hub and trapped in illegal work in Southeast Asia, seeking to combat a growing trend.

Tuesday's talks follow last week's high-profile case of a Chinese actor believed to have been a victim of human trafficking, who went missing after travelling to Thailand, but was later tracked to Myanmar and rescued.

The United Nations says border towns in Thailand, Laos and Myanmar have become regional hubs for telecom and other online fraud, with hundreds of thousands trafficked to work in scam centres there.

"There have been signs of a resurgence in the situation where Hong Kong residents are suspected of being lured to Southeast Asian countries and detained to engage in illegal work," the city's government said on Sunday.

Such signs have grown since the second quarter of 2024, it added in a statement.

A team led by Hong Kong security official Michael Cheuk met Thai police and government officials on Tuesday to help assist with the safe return of Hong Kong residents as soon as possible, the government said in a subsequent statement.

Of 28 requests for help from authorities, 16 of the individuals involved had returned home, while the remaining 12 had "reported restrictions on their movement", it said.

On Friday, China's embassy in Myanmar urged vigilance by its citizens against telecom and online fraud following reports of compatriots lured to Myanmar's border town of Myawaddy by online scams that promised "high-paying overseas jobs".

Most of the trafficking victims hail from Southeast Asian countries as well as China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, but some also from as far away as Africa and Latin America, the United Nations has said.