A group of more than 270 some men and women, who were rescued from forced labor in scam compounds months earlier but remain in detention in Myanmar, attempted a mass escape Sunday from a guarded facility out of fear that they may end up being sent back to the places they were trying to escape from, where they face beatings, torture and potentially even death.

Thousands of sick, exhausted and terrified young men and women, from countries all over the world squat in rows, packed shoulder to shoulder, surgical masks covering their mouths and, some, their eyes.

A new crackdown on online scam centers has led to over 7,000 people from around the world being held in a Myanmar border town awaiting repatriation.