HK victim tells of misery in Myanmar hellholes

Eunice Lam

Scam parks in Myanmar are "hell on Earth" with horribly unhygienic meals and dormitories and sell trafficked workers to each other if they fail in luring other victims, a ransomed Hongkonger says.

Another Hong Kong resident returned yesterday after Cambodian police on Friday arrested three alleged trafficking masterminds who are from Taiwan and the mainland. They rescued more than 40 foreign captives, including 35 Chinese and five Malaysians.

A spokesman from the Security Bureau said 12 people who sought help from the government's dedicated task force have returned safely, including a man who arrived from Thailand yesterday.

The bureau's photo showed the rescued man, wearing a black T-shirt and olive green shorts, walking to the designated immigration counter accompanied by immigration officers.

As of Saturday, a total of 41 people had sought help from the bureau and 23 of them had left the scam parks. But 18 people from Hong Kong are still being held captive - six in Myanmar and 12 in Cambodia.

The bureau urged "Hong Kong residents or their family members to contact the Immigration Department as soon as possible," the spokesman said.

Apart from a dedicated WhatsApp hotline - 5190-8909 - people can call the Immigration Department's assistance to Hong Kong residents unit hotline at 1868 or submit an online assistant request form.

In a television interview, the Hong Kong victim - identified only as L - is currently observing quarantine in a hotel after his family paid a ransom of 60,000 Thai baht (HK$13,000). He said his ransom was cheap because he was old and chronically ill.

L stayed in a scam park in Myanmar for around a week, where he was forced to learn about cryptocurrency investment and set up fake social media accounts - including WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram - disguised as high-flyers to defraud other people.

"I said I did not want to defraud others but I was assigned to chat with the targets and pass them to other workers when the time is ripe," he said.

L described trafficked workers in the scam parks as "goods" - they would be sold to other scam parks if they failed to scam people.

"The ransom will be doubled when you are sold to another scam park. In case you are sold to a third scam park [the ransom] will be tripled," L said. He said the living conditions were poor inside the scam parks, which were strictly guarded.

"If workers did something wrong, they would be tortured in a water dungeon, which meant having their bodies immersed in water in a room in total darkness," L said. After L's ransom was paid last month, he was led taken to a boat and then went on a car ride that took him to Mae Sot in Thailand.

He sought help from the Immigration Department after he arrived in Thailand.

"It was like another world in Mae Sot. I was too happy so I screamed, for I finally arrived in Thailand," L said.

In Taiwan, 13 people who had been held in "KK Park" in Myanmar - one of the most notorious scam parks - returned home from Thailand yesterday. Three others - who were alleged masterminds - were flown to the island as well.

Taiwan police said that amid the recent international cooperation of police forces, some of the scam groups in KK Park have started to dissolve and even released Taiwanese workers.

eunice.lam@singtaonewscorp.com