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Malaysian cook sold to Myanmar scam gang tells of beatings, 18-hour days — and his escape via a pigsty

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When he saw a job advertisement to work as a chef in Thailand for a salary ranging from 8,000 to 10,000 ringgit (US$1,700-US$2,135), a Malaysian cook jumped at the opportunity.
But in a tale that has now become all too familiar, the 33-year-old ended up being trafficked and sold to a scam syndicate in Myanmar.

The man, who once worked as a cook in Johor, had spotted the advertisement on social media, Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper China Press reported.

02:17

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“There were vacancies for chefs and waiters,” the man, whose surname is Zeng, was quoted as saying.

“I was interviewed over the phone by a Malaysian Chinese. Later in April, I flew to Bangkok.”

After he landed in Thailand, Zeng said a “recruiter” told him that he would be working in Chiang Rai, about 800km north of Bangkok.

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He and three other new recruits were then driven up to the Thai-Laos border, where they were met by armed men who ushered them across to Laos.

Zeng was taken from there to an industrial complex in Myanmar, where his passport and phone were confiscated and he was forced to work as a scammer.

He said he was made to work 12 to 18 hours a day. If he failed to reach the daily “target”, he would be punished physically.

One day, a chance to escape occurred when the gates to the industrial complex opened in the midst of a battle between the military and armed groups in strife-torn Myanmar.

Members of an anti-junta militia check an artillery piece allegedly seized from an army outpost in Myanmar’s Shan State last month amid a major offensive against the country’s military-run government. Photo: Kokang online media via AP

However, Zeng and several escapees were later captured, robbed by a militia group and forced to sleep in a pigsty.

Their money was taken away but their passports were returned to them, he said.

Zeng eventually got in touch with Malaysian organisations that arranged for their rescue.

This article was first published by The Star

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