An airlift carrying more than 1,000 Chinese nationals who had worked at online scam centers in eastern Myanmar began Thursday, after the rescued workers were taken across the border to Thailand and put on chartered flights to China.

China began repatriating 200 of its citizens who worked in cyber fraud operations in Myanmar, the first batch returning from the centers international groups have said are a nexus of human rights abuses and criminal activity.

Multinational victims of scam centres, who were trafficked into working in Myanmar and were sent to Thailand on February 12 amid a mounting crackdown on scam centres operating along a porous border, queue to get food at a shelter inside the 310th Military District (Fort Wachiraprakan) as they wait for their embassies to pick them up,