The Indian government has said it has been able to rescue hundreds of citizens lured to Cambodia with job offers only to be forced into working for cybercrime gangs.
A brief statement from India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) released on Saturday claimed that it and the country’s embassy in Cambodia had released several advisories about such dangers.
However, many Indian nationals remain stuck in the south-east Asian country after being tricked by scammers, MEA spokesperson Shri Randhir Jaiswal added. At least some of them have now been repatriated.
“Our embassy in Cambodia has been promptly responding to complaints from Indian nationals who were lured with employment opportunities to that country but were forced to undertake illegal cyber work,” Jaiswal continued. “Collaborating closely with Cambodian authorities, it has rescued and repatriated about 250 Indians, of which 75 in just the past three months.”
He added that the MEA continues to work with the Cambodian authorities in order to “crack down on those responsible for these fraudulent schemes.”
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That implies that there are many more foreign citizens in the country being forced to work on cybercrime scams against their will.
Interpol has regularly warned about the growing problem of human trafficking in the region.
In June last year it issued an Orange Notice – indicating a “serious and imminent threat to public safety” – and claimed the problem had spread from Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar to at least four more countries in the region.
Then in December 2023, it revealed that Operation Storm Makers II led to the arrest of 281 individuals on suspicion of human trafficking, passport forgery, corruption, telecoms fraud, sexual exploitation and other offenses.
It’s not just Indian citizens at risk of being tricked into working for cybercrime gangs. The Interpol operation uncovered stories of Malaysian victims lured to Peru with the promise of a high-paying job, but subsequently forced to commit telecoms fraud.
It also cited an example of Ugandans flown to Dubai for a non-existent job, before being diverted to Thailand and then Myanmar. They were subsequently delivered to an online fraud syndicate and kept under armed guard while being taught how to defraud banks.