Some 7,000 people rescued from illegal call centre operations in Myanmar were waiting be transferred to Thailand, Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said on Wednesday.

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.

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,