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.

A group of 50 Chinese nationals plucked from scam centres in Myanmar crossed into Thailand to take a flight home, a Thai police official said on Thursday, as part of a multinational effort to repatriate 600 Chinese.

A crackdown on Myanmar’s scam hubs has freed 10,000 workers, but concerns remain over the sustainability of the efforts against powerful crime syndicates.