Kenya repatriates 51 more citizens who were stranded in Myanmar

At least 51 Kenyans who were stranded in Myanmar for months landed in Nairobi on Wednesday evening .

The group included 13 women and 38 men and landed aboard a Kenya Airways flight.

They were received and processed by a multi-agency team that had been waiting.

The group was among close to 200 that had been stranded in Myanmar for months. They were lured there by recruitment agencies before being trapped for months. They sought help to be repatriated home.

There were friends and relatives of the victims who were at the airport to receive those arriving.

They hugged and kissed on arrival and vanished to their homes on arrival on January 14, 2026.

They were brought to Thailand before being processed and flown to Nairobi.

While Thailand has helped thousands of people, repatriating them is expensive and challenging. After taking custody of the workers at the border, Thai officials establish that they are victims of trafficking before releasing them to their home countries, which must be prepared to coordinate and pay for their travel.

A growing number of Kenyans, Ugandans and Ethiopians are being trafficked to Myanmar, where missing online scam targets leads to beatings and torture.

Modern slavery recruiters have capitalised on the government’s migration push, says Mutuku Nguli, chief executive officer of the Counter Human Trafficking Trust – East Africa, targeting Kenyans via online job ads, social media and in texts, or by in-person visits to rural areas.

Cyber slavery compounds have proliferated in Myanmar since the 2021 coup, which upended the country’s already-fractured governance and provided new avenues for illicit activities.

As public awareness grows in each country, it also becomes more difficult to recruit there.

Last year, Kenya repatriated 119 of its citizens who were trapped in Myanmar after being lured into fraudulent employment schemes.

The State Department for Diaspora Affairs said in December 2025 that 198 Kenyans were awaiting repatriation, including 66 in Thailand’s immigration detention center and 129 in shelters in Myanmar, adding that Kenya’s Embassy was in contact with three others at a Caritas Catholic safe house in Cambodia.

“86 Kenyans in military shelters initially refused cooperation – demanding government-funded tickets and spreading falsehoods on social media,” the department said then.

Online fraud networks operate from fortified compounds in remote parts of Myanmar’s Karen State along the Thai border, luring foreign workers, including Kenyans, with fake job offers and operating with inconsistent backing from armed groups, according to the department.

In September, 2025 Myanmar authorities raided scam compounds, triggering clashes with rebel groups and forcing criminals to flee, leaving over 200 Kenyan workers in military shelters in Myawaddy and Shwe Kokko or crossing into Thailand.

While the Kenyan government quickly acted after receiving an initial list of 126 nationals, the diaspora department said seven Kenyans remained pending rebooking following last-minute cancellations.

Since Myanmar’s 2021 coup, which triggered a civil war, scam hubs have spread across the country’s poorly regulated border regions.