MAE SOT, Thailand -- On a recent morning, one side of the bridge connecting Mae Sot, a western Thai border town, with Myawaddy in Myanmar was jammed with traffic. Myanmar residents -- cut off from electricity, fuel and telecoms by their neighbor for the past month -- were queueing to buy fuel in Thailand.
The Thai government in early February ordered utilities to stop supplying towns across the border, in a renewed crackdown with China against online scam syndicates. Such groups have kept thousands of people in virtual slavery as they defraud victims around the world of billions of dollars each year, while safely ensconced in Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos and siphoning Thai resources.
