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.

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.