Overview

• Russian citizen Dashima Ochirnimaeva, abducted in Bangkok in late September and forced to work in a fraudulent call center in Myanmar, was freed on October 7 and handed to Russian diplomats at the Thai–Myanmar border for return to Bangkok.
• The transfer followed coordinated actions by Thai and Myanmar law enforcement, staff of the Russian embassy in Bangkok, and a representative of Russia’s Interior Ministry in Thailand.
• Consular official Ilya Ilyin said several other Russians remain in call centers located in Myanmar near the Thai border, with cases involving both coerced individuals and those there voluntarily.
• The embassy in Bangkok does not yet have complete information on these cases or contact details for the individuals’ relatives in Russia.
• EKTS vice-president Ivan Melnikov said he plans to ask Russia’s Investigative Committee to open a probe into the recruitment of citizens into slavery abroad.