A Hongkonger who was rescued from a Myanmar scam farm a week ago is set to arrive in Hong Kong along with a Security Bureau-led task force on Monday, the government has said. The task force met the Hongkonger at a Thai detention centre,

City’s Security Bureau sent a task force to Thailand to address the issue of residents being lured abroad and forced into illegal work.

A total of 18 trafficking victims have been rescued, leaving 10 still held captive by Myanmar scam rings, chief executive John Lee said.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government raised travel alert for southeastern Myanmar to red on Friday (Jan 17), following a number of cases of Hong Kong residents being lured to Southeast Asian countries and forced to work at scam farms.

Hongkongers should avoid making non-essential trips to southeastern areas of Myanmar, the Security Bureau has said in issuing a red travel alert, while a top official has met the country’s consul general in the city to follow up on a resurgence of job scams.

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese authorities have detained a key suspect in human trafficking cases linked to online scam networks near the borders of Myanmar and Thailand, China’s Ministry of Public Security said, weeks after the high-profile disappearance of an actor sparked safety concerns.

Hong Kong officials held rare talks in Bangkok this week with Thai counterparts to find ways to bring home those lured from the Asian financial hub and trapped in illegal work in Southeast Asia, seeking to combat a growing trend.Tuesday's talks follow last week's high-profile case of a Chinese actor believed to have been a victim of human trafficking, who went missing after travelling to Thailand, but was later tracked to Myanmar and rescued.The United Nations says border towns in Thailand, Laos and Myanmar have become regional hubs for telecom and other online fraud, with hundreds of thousands trafficked to work in scam centres there."There have been signs of a resurgence in the situation where Hong Kong residents are suspected of being lured to Southeast Asian countries and detained to engage in illegal work," the city's government said on Sunday.Such signs have grown since the second quarter of 2024, it added in a statement.A team led by Hong Kong security official Michael Cheuk met Thai police and government officials on Tuesday to help assist with the safe return of Hong Kong residents as soon as possible, the government said in a subsequent statement.Of 28 requests for help from authorities, 16 of the individuals involved had returned home, while the remaining 12 had "reported restrictions on their movement", it said.On Friday, China's embassy in Myanmar urged vigilance by its citizens against telecom and online fraud following reports of compatriots lured to Myanmar's border town of Myawaddy by online scams that promised "high-paying overseas jobs".Most of the trafficking victims hail from Southeast Asian countries as well as China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, but some also from as far away as Africa and Latin America, the United Nations has said.

The Hong Kong government has elevated its travel warning for south-eastern Myanmar to a 'significant threat' due to cases of residents being lured into illegal work. Residents are advised to reconsider travel plans,

Hong Kong officials held rare talks in Bangkok this week with Thai counterparts to find ways to bring home those lured from the Asian financial hub and trapped in illegal work in Southeast Asia, seeking to combat a growing trend.

The case of Wang Xing, a Chinese actor kidnapped in Thailand and moved to a centre in Myanmar, has put the spotlight back on the human trafficking of Chinese nationals in Southeast Asia. According to

The Hong Kong government has heightened its travel warning to a 'significant threat' level for south-eastern Myanmar, advising residents to reconsider non-essential travel due to reports of Hong Kong citizens being lured into illegal work activities.

Amidst the increasing reports of Hong Kong residents being lured to Southeast Asian countries and detained to engage in illegal work, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government has raised the Outbound Travel Alert (OTA) level for Myanmar’s south-eastern regions to red, while maintaining an amber OTA for the rest of the country.