Freed Myanmar scam workers desperate to go home: ‘I can finally escape this hell’

Hundreds of exhausted young men lie in an open-sided detention centre in a seedy Myanmar border town, sweating through thick tropical heat by day and prey to clouds of mosquitoes by night.

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They are among some 7,000 people from more than two dozen countries released from scam compounds who are now enduring a gruelling wait to be sent home through Thailand.

Conditions in the overcrowded temporary camp in the town of Myawaddy, near the Thai border, were squalid and those held there were begging to leave.

“It’s really no good,” one 18-year-old Malaysian man said, adding the toilets and showers were so dirty they were unusable.

“I hope I can contact my parents quickly so I can go.”

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A Chinese detainee, who gave his family name as Wang, said he was “very happy” at the prospect of getting out.

  

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