BANGKOK: A total of 635 Thai nationals sent back from Cambodia have denied involvement in call-centre scam gangs after Cambodian authorities raided a 13-storey building in Poipet suspected of housing scam and online gambling operations.
The return operation took place at the Ban Khlong Luek permanent border checkpoint in Aranyaprathet district of Sa Kaeo province on Wednesday (April 30), with the group arriving in two batches. Officials said the returnees included people who claimed they had been deceived, as well as at least six or seven individuals with outstanding arrest warrants.
The group had been found after Cambodian officers raided a twin 13-storey building, known as Building F, in Zone B of Poipet. The site was suspected of being used as an operating base for scammers and online gambling networks involving both Thai and Chinese nationals.
Thai officials continued screening the returnees on Thursday (May 1), questioning them and checking their records to distinguish between those accused of offences and those who had travelled to work legally with valid passports. Each person was given an identification tag showing their name and return number.
The Department of Employment also imposed fines on those who failed to notify authorities before travelling overseas for work, in violation of the Employment and Job-Seeker Protection Act B.E. 2528.
Initial checks by Khlong Luek police found 68 online complaint records, or Case IDs, linked to some of the returnees. At least seven people were found to have outstanding warrants. Most of the group, around 580 people, had valid passports and were allowed to return to their home provinces after screening. Many were from the eastern region, including Sa Kaeo and Chonburi, as well as Samut Sakhon.
Several returnees appeared exhausted after waiting to cross back into Thailand since the previous day. Some said they had been detained together for several days before being sent back. Others claimed their money and mobile phones had been seized, that they had no cash left, or that they had been extorted by Cambodian-side officials. Some also alleged they had been physically assaulted.
According to initial information, many of the Thais had travelled to Cambodia only a few months earlier, flying into Phnom Penh before being taken to work sites.
One returnee said that after the raid, a group of police officers rounded up more than 600 people and packed them into two small rooms. The person claimed they had to sleep in cramped conditions and had not eaten for two days, while cash, gold, mobile phones and other belongings were taken.
Another returnee said they had worked in the 13-storey building before fighting broke out in the area. The person said their role was to respond to customer chats, but declined to say whether the work was connected to a call-centre operation, saying only that they did not know. They said the job paid 18,000 baht a month and was not particularly difficult, although they had thought about returning to Thailand.
A Thai administrator from Chonburi said they had only recently started work at the same building. They claimed Cambodian authorities had initially intended to raid a neighbouring building allegedly linked to call-centre scammers, which they described as a “black” operation. By contrast, they said the 13-storey building where they worked housed an online gambling office and casino, which they described as a “grey” business.
The person insisted they were not involved in a call-centre gang and worked only as an administrator answering customer questions for an online gambling site. They claimed the work did not involve deception, saying users had voluntarily signed up to gamble online.
Another administrator from Aranyaprathet in Sa Kaeo said they had worked there for only six months after seeing a Facebook job advertisement for an online gambling administrator. They said they accepted the job willingly because they were unemployed and work was hard to find due to the border situation.
The person said the pay was more than 20,000 baht a month, which they considered high at a time when jobs were scarce. Their work, they said, involved answering chats about gambling issues and top-ups. Most customers were from Thailand and Cambodia, though they did not know whether the website owner was Thai or Cambodian.
They also denied being a scammer and said they had not planned to return to Thailand because they were given freedom and were not forced to work. They said they had never expected a raid, but believed Poipet police had assumed the 13-storey building was being used by scammers.
The building is about three kilometres from the Aranyaprathet border. After the raid, Cambodian authorities pushed the Thai nationals back through the Aranyaprathet checkpoint in Sa Kaeo, while Chinese nationals linked to call-centre operations were reportedly sent out through Siem Reap.
Security sources said nearly 10,000 Thais may still be stranded or working in similar conditions in Cambodia, with officials now coordinating further assistance. - The Nation/ANN
