Sri Lankan, Indian embassies repatriate call centre victims

Sri Lankan and Indian embassies repatriated call centre victims to their home countries on Tuesday.

Some 260 victims were rescued from Myawaddy township of Myanmar to Tak province on February 12, including one each from Sri Lanka and India.

Both embassies dispatched vehicles to pick up their victims at the provincial territorial defence student training centre in Mueang district. The victims looked happy and said goodbye to fellow victims from other countries.

Anjana Ileperuma, assistant secretary of the Sri Lankan embassy, explained that the victim had been lured to work as a scammer for five months in Myanmar due to an advertisement for a job in Thailand.

He said the victim had been assaulted for failing to meet the scammers’ target, confirming that the victim was happy to return home.

Ileperuma thanked Thai authorities for the rescue, while asking for rescuing other 17 Sri Lankan victims in Myanmar.

Meanwhile, Tak governor Choocheap Pongchai noted that the national referral mechanism (NRM) process on 260 victims was completed, saying that Thai authorities are contacting embassies for repatriation.

Of them, 258 are human trafficking victims and the other two were sent to police investigators, he explained.



Choocheap said several embassies have already arranged for the repatriation of victims, leaving only 236 individuals still awaiting repatriation in Tak. He expects that this group will be repatriated by this week.

He confirmed that Thai authorities have provided accommodation, meals, essential supplies and medical treatment to victims.

(2025/02/18-00:00)