India repatriated Thursday the first batch of hundreds of its nationals who last month fled to Thailand from Myanmar, where most had been working at a notorious center for online scams.

The center, known as KK Park on the outskirts of the border city of Myawaddy and said to house a major cybercrime operation, was raided by Myanmar’s army in mid-October to suppress cross-border online scams and illegal gambling.

An Indian air force transport plane left Thailand en route to India Thursday with about 270 out of 465 Indians who are to be repatriated.

The remainder will leave Thailand next Monday, according to Maj. Gen. Maitree Chupreecha, commander of the Thai army’s northern region Naresuan Task Force.

Those currently being repatriated are among more than 1,500 people from 28 nations who fled the raid in Myawaddy.

Across the border in the Thai town of Mae Sot, Thai authorities had set up temporary facilities for housing and processing not just Indians, but also Chinese, Filipinos, Vietnamese, Ethiopians and Kenyans, among other nationalities.

Southeast Asia is the world epicenter for online scams, and hundreds of thousands of people are believed to have been lured to work in Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, where many were forced to perpetrate global scams involving false romances, fraudulent investments, and illegal gambling.