New Delhi has repatriated over 500 citizens who were lured to work in scam centers under the pretext of well-paid jobs

New Delhi has repatriated 549 Indian citizens who had been rescued from cyber crime centers located along the Myanmar-Thailand border, the external affairs ministry said on Wednesday. They were brought by military aircraft in two groups on Monday and Tuesday.

The Indians were among other citizens of Asian and African countries who had traveled to Thailand or Myanmar to pursue fake IT job offers.

Upon arrival, they were reportedly trafficked to cyber crime centers, allegedly operated by Chinese criminal gangs, in the ungoverned border areas of Myanmar, which are beyond the control of the central government.

External affairs spokesman Randhir Jaiswal posted on X that the government has been making "sustained efforts" to have them released. "These persons were subsequently made to indulge in cybercrime and engage in other fraudulent activities in scam centers operating in regions along the Myanmar-Thailand border," the ministry said in a statement. It also reiterated "its caution about such rackets."

Most of the captives were freed during a crackdown operation by Thai, Chinese and Myanmar authorities. The operation led to the release of more than 7,000 people from locked compounds where they were forced to trick people, mainly in the US, out of their life savings, AP reported.

Hundreds of Indian citizens have fallen prey to criminal gangs running similar scams in countries such as Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand, according to the Hindustan Times. In January, New Delhi's embassy in Laos rescued 67 Indian men who had been trafficked into cyber-scam centers operating in a special economic zone.

The "pig butchering" scam, a type of online fraud where victims are convinced to invest in fake platforms, is allegedly orchestrated by Chinese criminal syndicates. The scam's name originates from an analogy where a farmer raises and fattens a pig before eventually slaughtering it, symbolizing how the scammers gradually build trust with their victims before exploiting them financially.

This issue first came to light in September 2024, when media reports stated that thousands of Indians were trapped in several Southeast Asian countries where they are forced to work as "cyber slaves." New Delhi's immigration authorities have reported that out of 73,138 Indians who visited certain countries on visitor visas between January 2022 and May 2024, approximately 30,000 have not returned to India.

(RT.com)