Enslaved in Myanmar’s scam centres, rescued Bangladeshis carry harrowing scars

Though Faysal has returned home alive, he is still traumatised. 

After being enslaved and tortured mercilessly by telecom fraudsters in Myanmar, he came back to Bangladesh recently with a severed ligament and deep psychological scars. Speaking about his ordeal only brings back the horror, so he has chosen silence — at least for now. 

"Everyone keeps asking about it; I cannot take it anymore," he said at his house in Brahmanbaria. "I have confined myself at home."

But Faysal is only one of the numerous Bangladeshis who suffered brutal abuse at the hands of scammers in Myanmar's Karen State, near the Myanmar-Thailand border.

The Business Standard has learned of 18 Bangladeshi migrant workers currently in the custody of the insurgent Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) in Myawaddi town, Myanmar. Most of these victims endured months of nightmarish physical and mental torture in the telecom scam centres of war-ravaged Myanmar before being rescued by the DKBA.

Bangladesh Ambassador to Thailand Faiyaz Murshid Kazi confirmed that they are aware of the Bangladeshis in DKBA and Border Guard Forces (BGF) custody, and are awaiting the start of their repatriation process through official channels. 

In recent weeks, hundreds of people from 20 nationalities who had been trapped in telecom fraud centres in Myanmar's Karen State (now renamed Kayin State) have been freed by the ethnic armed group and brought to Thailand.

However, out of the 20 Bangladeshi victims in these scam centres, only two — including Faysal — have been repatriated so far. The Bangladesh Embassy in Thailand could not confirm the total number of Bangladeshis who may have suffered the same fate.

Ambassador Faiyaz Murshid Kazi said, "We are now waiting for the list to be officially shared by the Myanmar authorities. We do not wish to speculate the number of people without official confirmation from the Myanmar side."

He said the transfer of the victims to DKBA and BGF custody has been made possible through "relentless contacts" with multiple authorities in Thailand, Myanmar and China.

These scam centres operate in a manner very similar to those in Cambodia, where many Bangladeshis have fallen victim in recent years. The scam operators 'recruit' workers by luring them with promises of high-paying data entry or office jobs.

They have agents across the world, who are reportedly paid for every worker they supply to the scam centres.

The workers we interviewed named three traffickers — Tanveer, Romel and Roni — based in the UAE, who trafficked most of these 18 migrant workers by luring them with promises of high-paying jobs in Thailand. They were unable to provide further details about these traffickers, as they had lost their phones and the traffickers' contact numbers.

One of the victims we were able to speak to directly from within the DKBA rescue centre is Rashidul Islam Refat.

He had worked in the UAE for a year and a half before the trafficker named Tanveer, whom he had known for several months, told him and another victim, Imran, about the jobs in Thailand. 

"We trusted him because we had known him for several months," Rashidul said. "He promised they would pay us $1,500 per month." 

He also earned their trust by telling the victims they would only need to pay for airfare and other fees after they landed in Bangkok, directly to the cartel's agents at the airport.

Rashidul paid $600 at Suvarnabhumi International Airport on 19 September last year. He called his sister, Mousumi Akhter, to let her know that everything was alright and that he was excited to have finally secured a high-paying job. 

"But that was the last day we heard from Rashidul. For the next 27 days, we didn't hear anything from him and his number remained unreachable," Mousumi said.

Rashidul said the agent who picked them up from the airport put them in a car.

"The driver didn't understand a word of English, and we had no idea where he was taking us. He drove for hours, and we later realised he had brought us into Myanmar," Rashidul said.

The scammers seized their phones upon arrival. The scam centres are located in the border areas between Thailand and Myanmar. 

"The job was to assume female identities online, befriend men and lure them to invest in a scam app," Rashidul said. Every victim had a monthly target. Those who missed the target were subjected to brutal punishment.

"I missed the target, and they beat me. Once, they made me do frog jumps for half an hour. There's a strict rule for frog jump punishment — if you deviate even slightly, they beat you," Rashidul explained.

"My entire body was in severe pain. I couldn't move for two days," he added.

Rashidul and other Bangladeshis were rescued by the DKBA army starting on 18 February after Thai and Chinese authorities made a serious effort to free thousands of victims enslaved in these centres.

Later, a total of 18 Bangladeshis, including Rashidul, were brought back to the centre.

A portion of the victims' list. Photo: Courtesy

Rashidul said that, of all the Bangladeshi victims he knows, Faysal endured the most brutal torture.

"He escaped the centre with some other people but the scammers caught them. They tortured them so much that his ligament severed and he suffered severe head injuries, including brain trauma," Rashidul said. "People usually wipe the floor with water, but these mafias wiped the floor with blood that day."

In Bangladesh, family members of the victims have been passing days in deep apprehension. 

Yasmin Akhter, mother of victim Tanbir Akhand Rafi, said, "I humbly request you to save the life of my son and others." Mother of a victim named Kaisar Hossen pleaded, "I have only one son, please help us rescue our child." 

Ujjal Hossain, a victim from the same centre said in a video statement, "The DKBA has rescued 18 Bangladeshis in this centre since 18 February. There are around 500 others from different nationalities in this centre.

"We are barely surviving here. We are in a very weak physical and mental state. We are requesting the government to repatriate us from here as soon as possible," he added. 

Ambassador Faiyaz said that the repatriation process can "only proceed in a phased manner for effective management by the Myanmar and Thai authorities", which he expected to be "in the very near future". 

The ambassador also warned Bangladeshi nationals against travelling to Thailand under false promises made to them by the scamsters and their transnational agents.