India, on Thursday, was flying in the first batch of hundreds of its nationals who fled to Thailand from a Myanmar-based scam center in October.

The KK Park center was a major cybercrime cell operatingon the outskirts of the border city of Myawaddy when Myanmar's army raided it mid-October. The raid drove more than 1,500 people from 28 countries into the Thai border town of Mae Sot, according to local Thai authorities.

Of this, 465 were Indian passport holders. Other nationalities include Chinese, Filipinos, Vietnamese, Ethipopians and Kenyans.

An Indian air force transport plane left Thailand on Thursday with 270 People on board, according to Thai Major General Maitree Chupreecha. Those remaining will be flown to India on Monday.

India's Ministry of External Affairs confirmed the repatriation to DW over text message. 

An epicenter of online scams

South East Asia is a global hotbed for digital scam operations with hundreds of thousands of people lured into countries like Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia in lieu of jobs.

In early 2024, DW investigated the KK Park compound, reporting how people trapped therewere forced to scam others online with threats of torture and even murder.

DW's investigative unit went to the borderlands of Thailand and Myanmar to track down the perpetrators behind this multimillion-euro operation. Along the way, they uncovered a vast criminal network leading to a notorious Chinese Triad boss. 

In March, Indian repatriated 549 nationals after an earlier crackdown on cybercrime operations at the Myanmar-Thai border.

Edited by: Kieran Burke