Singaporean woman and hundreds of Thais being evacuated from Myanmar

BANGKOK - More than two hundred Thai nationals trapped by the surge in fighting in northern Myanmar between junta soldiers and armed ethnic-minority groups are being evacuated to Thailand via China, the Thai Foreign Ministry said on Nov 19.

The Myanmar military, which seized power in a 2021 coup, is losing control of several towns and military outposts around the country as well as being overrun in parts of its north as they battle the biggest coordinated offensive, launched in October by an alliance of three ethnic-minority groups and pro-democracy fighters.

The Thai Foreign Ministry said a group of 266 Thais and an unspecified number of Filipino and Singaporean nationals are being evacuated from Laukkaing in northern Shan state to the Myanmar-China border with help from the Myanmar authorities.

The Straits Times understands that there is one Singaporean woman in the group.

The group will be permitted to enter China and will then fly from the Chinese city of Kunming on two chartered flights to Bangkok where they will undergo screening for human trafficking and any criminal records.

The Thai Foreign Ministry did not specify the timing of the repatriation flights. It, however, said the group is travelling to the Chinese border on Nov 19.

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The Thai authorities earlier said that some trapped in Myanmar were victims of human trafficking and some might be involved with telecoms fraud gangs.

South-east Asia, including Myanmar, has become a hub for telecoms and other online fraud according to the United Nations, with hundreds of thousands of people trafficked by criminal gangs and forced to work in scam centres and other illegal operations.

The evacuation to China comes a day after 41 Thai nationals were repatriated by land back to Thailand after a coordination between the Thai authorities and Myanmar army. 

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.