The Kenya Embassy in Bangkok has raised the alarm over the number of Kenyans being duped into applying for fake jobs in Thailand, only to end up trafficked into Myanmar.
In a statement on Friday, August 16, the embassy said it is concerned about the high number of Kenyans who are falling victim to human traffickers in Myanmar and Lao PDR.
The Kenyan embassy said that extracting people from the scam factories inside Myanmar and Lao PDR is dangerous due to the ongoing civil war.
“The Kenya Embassy in Bangkok is increasingly getting concerned and frustrated with Kenyans who continue to fall victim to human traffickers in Myanmar and Lao PDR, only to call the Embassy for help upon realizing that they had been duped into applying for fake jobs purported to be in Thailand,” read the statement in part.
The embassy noted that it is currently searching for 3 missing Kenyans in Myanmar and has rescued over 140 Kenyans as the first cases of Kenyans being trafficked to Myanmar and Lao PDR surfaced.
The Kenyan Embassy in Bangkok noted that Kenyans continue to flow into Myanmar, mainly through Thailand, despite warnings through various media channels.
It also pointed out that some Kenyans have been turned into human trafficking agents and take as much as Ksh 300,000 from unsuspecting Kenyans.
“Even more frustrating is the fact that some of the Kenyans working in the scam compounds in Myanmar have become trafficking agents, on behalf of the criminal cartels. The agents, some of whom are Kenyans receive a lot of money from unsuspecting Kenyans as much as Ksh.300,000 to get a visa at the Thai Embassy in Nairobi and pay for air ticket,” the embassy stated.
It noted that in many cases, the return portion of the air ticket is invalidated as soon as the victim arrives in Thailand, while the hotel reservation is fake.
The embassy said most of the victims are duped with fake job adverts in Thailand, especially customer care, front office, cryptocurrency, and teaching jobs, only to reach Thailand and find there are no such jobs.
Some of the trafficked Kenyans have ended as destitutes in Bangkok, sleeping in the streets and begging for food from strangers.
Further, the embassy said some Kenyans are being trafficked through prostitution with their photos being auctioned online.
“Most of the young girls are trafficked from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda by fellow East Africans and they are auctioned online to the highest bidder using photos of the girls. Just recently, one Kenyan died in her room in Bangkok apparently due to what the doctors described as a ‘blood clot’,” the embassy added.
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