Thailand’s Immigration Bureau has denied reports that a Belarusian model who travelled to Bangkok for work was ‘forced’ to go to Myanmar, where she was reportedly killed by a scam gang who then sold her organs on the black market.
The incident was first reported by a Russian news outlet called Mash. It was subsequently picked up by international media such as the Daily Mail and The Sun and started circulating widely on social media last week.
The stories said that Vera Kravtsova, 26, had travelled from Belarus to Thailand in September for a modelling job interview in Bangkok. She was then forcefully made to go to Myanmar, where she was pressed into slavery in a scam centre.
‘Her duties included being beautiful, serving her ‘masters’, and scamming rich people,’ Mash reported.
When Kravtsova failed to meet her targets, she was tortured and killed and her organs were harvested and then sold, the reports said.
The gang allegedly demanded $500,000 from her family for the return of her remains, but later refused to cooperate and told her parents she had been cremated.
The killing took place somewhere in northern Myanmar, the reports said, without providing further details.
Details about Kravtsova’s time in Bangkok, who she met there and whether she did any modelling work were not known. The reports are equally vague about where and when she was ‘abducted’ in Thailand.
Pol Maj Gen Choengron Rimpadee, a spokesman for the Immigration Bureau, on Tuesday said its investigations determined that Kravtsova was not ‘forced’ to cross into Myanmar from Thailand.
She arrived at Suvarnabhumi airport on Sept 14 and later left the country on Thai Airways flight TG 301 to Yangon at 7.20am on Sept 20, Pol Maj Gen Choengron said.
She passed through Thai immigration via the automatic channel by herself, with CCTV footage showing no signs that she was being coerced or under any pressure from anyone.
‘The reported brutal incidents happened after the model flew to Myanmar,’ Pol Maj Gen Choengron said. ‘Thai police do not know what happened there as it is outside our authority.’
Immigration police have also handed evidence of the young woman’s arrival and departure at the airport to the Consulate of the Belarus in Thailand.
Pol Maj Gen Choengron said the Immigration Bureau has measures to screen foreigners to prevent them from being deceived into scam gangs, as well as to prevent gangsters from entering the kingdom visa-free.
So far this year, about 34,000 individuals have been denied entry, he said.