Twelve Thai nationals rescued from a scam centre in Cambodia have been repatriated to Thailand.

The group reportedly slipped through the border to work at a Cambodian scam compound before they were arrested in Phnom Penh on January 8.

Cambodian immigration police coordinated their return, and the Thais were handed over to Thai authorities at the Ban Hat Lek border crossing in the eastern Thai province of Trat, on January 12.

The return was attended by checkpoint officers, local authorities, police, marine officers, and public health officials.

Officials said the Thais were detained for screening and questioning, pending further legal procedures.

The group said they were unemployed before being recruited to work at a fraud centre, but were detained before they could start employment.

Noi, 23, who claimed to have led the group, said he was paid 6,000 baht per person by an employer to smuggle workers across the border.

He added that they used the forest crossing because it was 'safe and free of landmines'. They set off under the cover of darkness, with their journey timed to avoid military detection, he said.

Border areas between Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia have become hubs for online fraud since the Covid-19 pandemic.

At the Thai-Cambodia border, the scam centres are situated in towns such as Poipet and O Smach to exploit their proximity to Thai telecommunications and banking infrastructure.

These compounds frequently use Thai mobile signals and internet services that leak across the border to target victims in Thailand and overseas, as the connections are more stable than domestic Cambodian networks.

The Office of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission has threatened to suspend or revoke the licences of mobile operators that fail to prevent cross-border signal leakage.

The Royal Thai Army said the recent border conflict was also a ‘war against the scam army'.

The United Nations reports that billions of dollars have been generated from the trafficking of hundreds of thousands of people forced to work in these compounds.