Efforts on to bring home Indian youth forced into cybercrime in Cambodia

Yet another cyber-slavery scam has been busted in Cambodia following a banner of revolt raised by job aspirants from India, most of them from Andhra Pradesh against their Chinese bosses forcing the government in Phnom Penh to swoop on the fraudsters.

Vizag Police Commissioner A Ravi Shankar said after they unearthed the scam following calls and video clips sent by the victims from Andhra Pradesh who were held illegally in Cambodia, the local authorities in coordination with the Indian officials provided safe passage to 60 of them to return.

He said efforts are on to bring back home safely to other victims. Some of the rescued youth landed in Visakhapatnam on Friday.

Promising lucrative careers, the educated unemployed youth were allegedly lured on payment of 'travel and visa charges.' On arrival, they were provided lodging and boarding for 10-15 days in Cambodia with some induction training on computer operations by the agents engaged by the racketeers.

The youth were subsequently tortured and compelled to commit cybercrime online taking gullible users abroad for a ride.

Preliminary reports said their handlers were representing Chinese companies. It is also suspected that this could be part of a larger scandal of illegal human trafficking leading to their forcible employment in cybercrimes like FoodEx, stocks and gaming. In addition to Cambodia, the so-called cyber-slavery was allegedly taking place in Thailand and Laos, which are bordering Cambodia.

"We were underemployed and undernourished. We were not given freedom to speak to the outer world and the fraudsters forcibly took away our passports on arrival in Cambodia," one of the victims said. Cambodia is not new to organised cybercrimes and in the past the police there had cracked down on several scamsters.

In a post on micro-blogging site X, the Indian Embassy stated: "Always committed to helping Indians abroad. First batch of 60 Indian nationals rescued by Indian Embassy in Cambodia from fraudulent employers return home. Thank the Cambodian authorities for their support. @MOICambodia @IndianDiplomacy @MEAIndia @meaMADAD."

The Visakhapatnam Police Commissionerate is credited with exposing the human trafficking scam recently after they were alerted on the fraud by some Telugu youth held forcibly in Cambodia. After the revolt, about 300 youth were arrested by the Cambodia Police. However, due to immediate intervention from the Indian authorities mainly the Ministry of External Affairs, the process began to offer them a safe passage for homecoming. The police here have formed a special team to ensure safe return of the youth stranded in Cambodia. The police also were swift in arresting three local agents Chukku Rajesh, S Kondala Rao and M Gnaneswar in the city after receiving complaints from the victims on human trafficking.

Enquiries revealed that on receipt of certain amount, they were transporting the job aspirants to Cambodia. Later their counterparts were handing them over to the Chinese handlers of the cybercrimes.

Cybercrime Inspector K Bhavani Prasad said an estimated 5,000 youth might have landed up in illegal jobs in Cambodia from Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and other parts of India.