Hundreds of Chinese workers were heading home on Thursday after being returned from scam centres in Myanmar amid a crackdown on the illegal operations.

Battered and bruised Chinese workers from online scam centres in Myanmar faced an anxious wait to return home, as Beijing and Thailand finalised plans on Wednesday for their repatriation. Scam compounds have flourished in Myanmar's lawless borderlands,

The presence and activities of China's Assistant Minister for Public Security Liu Zhongyi are part of a three-country joint operation against Chinese call-scam gangs based in Myanmar, Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said on Monday.

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.