Around 50 people from Myanmar and 80 from Cambodia who were held captive in fake job rackets have been rescued, India said on Friday and added a word of caution asking citizens to remain extremely careful of dubious jobs they accept.
“Around 50 people have been rescued so far. We are trying to get back others too. We do not have the exact number of people captive in Myanmar. We are in touch with many Indians there,” MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said on Indians stuck in Myanmar. He further added that some of these have been released from Myanmar’s captivity and some are with Myanmar police as they entered the country illegally.
Over instances of similar job rackets in Laos and Cambodia, Bagchi said that our Embassies in Vientiane, Phnom Penh and Bangkok have been helping in repatriating people from there. “We have issued advisories in this regard. Our embassy in Phnom Penh has issued advisories. I would like to reiterate to everyone to be extremely careful what kind of dubious jobs you accept because once you are stuck there it gets very difficult to bring you back safely. This is a word of caution,” Bagchi noted.
“Around 80 people have been rescued from Cambodia but it is an evolving number,” he added. Earlier, India on Wednesday said that it has rescued around 45 Indians trapped in fake job rackets in Myanmar.
He also said that some more Indian citizens have been rescued from their fake employers and are in the custody of Myanmar authorities and legal formalities have been initiated for their return.
The spokesperson further stated that the details of agents allegedly involved in this job racket have been shared with relevant authorities in various states in India for appropriate action.
Earlier in September, in an advisory to Indian citizens, the MEA had cautioned IT skilled youth who were the targets of such fake job rackets.
“Instances of fake job rackets offering lucrative jobs to entice Indian youths for the posts of ‘Digital Sales and Marketing Executives’ in Thailand by dubious IT firms involved in the call-centre scam and crypto-currency fraud have come to our notice recently by our Missions in Bangkok and Myanmar. The target groups are IT skilled youth who are duped in the name of lucrative data entry jobs in Thailand through social media advertisements as well as by Dubai and India-based agents,” read the MEA statement.
