PEOPLE’S Party MP Rangsiman Rome said during a visit to the Thai-Myanmar border at Mae Sot district, Tak province, today (Feb. 16) that the four levels of filtering cannot stop foreigners who either want to join scam gangs just across in Myawaddy township or are deceived into doing so thus the government should review the visa-free entry measure, Amarin TV said.
Rome, who chairs the House Committee on Security, Border Affairs, National Strategies & National Reform, led a team to this border town where they held talks with senior officers of Rajamanu Task Force on border crime and call centre gangs.
He mentioned that an arrest warrant for Karen Border Guard Force leader Saw Chit Thu should still be issued even though a few hundred or may be some thousand scam workers and victims are being released because they are but a very small group of the total entrapped at the huge Shwe Kokko and KK Park crime complexes in Myawaddy with this possibly reaching a hundred thousand.
Moreover there is additional information that there is now an attempt to flee from the border further inland to Pa-an town which means just getting the cooperation of Myanmar junta might not be enough with other steps needed to suppress these gangs.
Additionally the strict measures currently in place to hit out at scam gangs across the border that started on Feb. 5 by cutting electricity, Internet and fuel supplies from five points to three Myanmar border townships – Tachileik, Myawaddy and Payathonzu – and includes checkpoints at airports and along the roads to the border might not be enough because the police and military cannot stop foreigners from going to border towns.
Once there they are able to slip across the border through natural channels at night making it necessary to require people to get permission to enter these areas and review the visa-free entry measure.
While the first step in suppressing these scam gangs has worked very well, Rangsiman said more work is needed to prevent them from getting essential supplies such as solar panels and Starlink satellite Internet service with various agencies now working on this.
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People’s MP Rangsiman Rome talking to the press in Mae Sot today, Feb. 16, 2025. Photos: Amarin TV
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