Hong Kong task force sent to Thailand ‘trying their best to help’ trafficking victims, leader John Lee says
Hong Kong Free Press
A Hong Kong task force sent to Thailand is “trying their best to help” trafficked Hongkongers illegally held in Myanmar, Chief Executive John Lee said on Tuesday.
“The Security Bureau’s task force is… trying all their best to help those who are being kept in captivity in Southeast Asian countries, Myanmar in this case,” Lee told reporters at a regular press briefing.
The Security Bureau-led task force, which also includes police and immigration officials, flew to Thailand on Sunday to follow up on 12 Hongkongers who reported they had been trafficked to Southeast Asia and were held captive by scam rings in Myanmar.
They were among a total of 28 requests for assistance received by the Hong Kong authorities since mid-2024, the government previously said. Sixteen have returned to Hong Kong.
Thai Justice Minister Tawee Sodsong and other officials met with the Hong Kong task force on Monday morning.
The visit “has achieved some positive results,” Lee said. “Thailand officials have already indicated that they will attach great importance to the cases and try all their means to try to rescue those Hong Kong people who are in captivity.”
Cases of Hongkongers being trafficked and forced to work in “scam farms” in Myanmar have risen in recent months, following a widely reported surge in 2022. Along with other forms of transnational crime, human trafficking has surged since Myanmar’s military ousted the democratically elected Aung San Suu Kyi administration in 2021, triggering a civil war with ethnic armed militias.
At the Tuesday press conference, Lee said that “the modus operandi is to deceive people to go to Thailand and then send them across the border. The indications are that this is a scam that happened with the people who have fallen into the trap to make such agreement to go.
“So far, there has not been indication that it happens indiscriminately against people in Thailand, but we have to keep alert to the development of the situation.”
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