'Selling piglets' | 25-year-old man forced to work 17-hour days in Myanmar, beaten for missing targets
The Police and the Immigration Department made a press release on a case in which Hong Kong people were lured to engage in fraudulent activities in a Southeast Asian country. The spokesman said that among the 12 cases of trapped Hong Kong people, some of the victims had returned to Hong Kong today, but the process was not as smooth as the police thought and encountered obstacles.
Relevant staff said that the Immigration Department received requests for assistance and kept in touch with their families. The victim who returned to Hong Kong went back to Thailand from Myanmar, and then returned to Hong Kong, but because overstaying was involved, they needed the assistance of the Chinese Embassy and the Thai police, etc., and the Security Bureau and the Immigration Department then sent officers to pick them up.
According to the spokesman, the police received a report from a woman last year that her 25-year-old son had asked his family for help, saying that after arriving in Bangkok, Thailand, he had been taken to Myanmar and had to pay US$30,000 to the other party before he could return to Hong Kong. As the case involves human trafficking, the Hong Kong police sought assistance from the Thai and Myanmar police, and worked with the Immigration Department to provide support to the victim's family. The victim returned to Hong Kong via Bangkok this afternoon and is assisting the police in their investigation.
"In early October, the victim discovered on social media that someone had offered HK$120,000 to recruit a carrier to bring diamonds from Thailand to Taiwan. After applying for the job, the victim traveled to Bangkok, Thailand, via the Hong Kong airport in the early hours of Oct. 13, 2024. According to the victim's description, when he arrived at the Bangkok airport in the morning of the same day, he was immediately put in a pre-arranged private car by a local person, and then arranged to transfer to different vehicles several times in the following few hours. When he arrived at the Thai-Myanmar border and became aware of the deception, he attempted to run away, but failed, and then he was taken to a park in a mountainous area in Myanmar, where soldiers were armed with guns."
After arriving at the park, the victim was forced to work on an online scam through social media for 17 hours a day, from morning until midnight. The victim had not met his work targets for the past three months, and had been beaten up and deducted from his diet several times, and many of his body scars can still be seen, according to the spokesman.
The spokesman pointed out that the victim had suffered physically and mentally, and reminded the public to beware of fraudulent offers of well-paid and lucrative jobs.
Regarding the cases of stranded Hong Kong people seeking help, he continued to say that each case has different environmental factors and cannot be generalized. He was not at liberty to disclose whether the families had paid the ransom.
He reiterated that the objective of the operation was to rescue the 11 Hong Kong people, and would explain the details of the case when appropriate. He also pointed out that there were still 11 people waiting to be rescued, and he did not think it was an appropriate stage to disclose the details of the case for fear of affecting other cases.
In response to media enquiries, he emphasized that he did not agree with the payment of ransom, and could not say arbitrarily that the payment of ransom is a feasible method, for example, how to pay ransom, to whom to hand over the ransom, and whether to release the people, etc., and that there are different practices for each case, and the only thing to do is to rescue them as soon as possible.
The Security Bureau task force met with the families of the imprisoned Hong Kong residents today (Jan. 16), and the Deputy Secretary for Security Michael Cheuk Hau-yip also attended the meeting.
Related News:
HK resident rescued successfully from 'selling piglets' scam in Southeast Asia
Survivors speak out: Escaping the nightmare of cross-border scams
Comment