Malaysia flies home 121 job scam victims stranded in Myanmar conflict zone
- The group, most of Chinese descent, arrived in Kuala Lumpur on a special flight from China’s Kunming
- The victims were rescued from the besieged Laukkaing, a town on the China border, where the junta and rebel outfits have been engaged in a fierce gunfight
The 121 Malaysians, most of Chinese descent ageing from their 20s to their 50s, were brought together over recent weeks in Laukkaing, a town on the China border, besieged by ethnic armed groups seeking to wrestle the strategic point from the Myanmar junta.
Since October, a coalition of armed groups under the banner of the Brotherhood Alliance, have forced Myanmar’s junta into a retreat across swathes of northern Shan State after a shock assault.
One of the operation’s stated aims was to close the scam compounds which have raked in billions of dollars from Myanmar’s remote frontier, much of it siphoned into the pockets of junta affiliates who until recent weeks had run the border zone with impunity.
As the bosses closed scam compounds, ran or relocated – driven from the border by a concurrent Chinese-led crackdown – Malaysians, Thais, Vietnamese and other nationalities were taken from across Shan State to Laukkaing to be evacuated via the China border.
But fighting has gripped the town for over a week, with regular rocket strikes rattling the surrounding area, adding urgency to the evacuation plans.