Thai police protect two Japanese nationals at Myanmar border, possibly complicit in special fraud

[Bangkok Current Affairs] Thai police announced on the 2nd that they took two Japanese men in their 20s into custody on September 30th in the western Kanchanaburi province, which borders Myanmar. The two are believed to have been made to take part in the fraud at a special fraud base in Myanmar, and there may be multiple other Japanese nationals at the base.

According to Thai police, the two traveled to Thailand after being lured by job advertisements on social media that promised high salaries, and were handed over by an intermediary to a special fraud group in Myanmar. It is believed that the suspects stayed at the fraudulent base for about 20 days, where they were forced to call elderly Japanese people pretending to be police officers. He said he was threatened with harm to his family in Japan if he did not comply.

It is not clear how the two escaped from Myanmar to Thailand, but they asked their families for help by phone and were rescued through cooperation between the Japanese embassy and Thai police. Thai police consider the two to be victims of human trafficking and are investigating the details of the incident.