The external affairs ministry on Friday identified four companies who were involved in the entrapment racket which lured Indian youth to Myanmar in the name of lucrative jobs, the Times of India said in a report.
The MEA said there are 100 to 150 men who remain stranded there and the authorities have managed to rescue only 32. People who were previously trapped there told the Times of India that there were at least 500 Indians trapped there.
They also told the new agency that everyday 10-20 Indians are brought to Myawaddy and Mae Sot.
Indian IT professionals are being trapped by a ‘slave labour’ racket who force them to pose as Chinese women online and defraud high net worth individuals from the US and Europe often in the guise of cryptocurrency investment, the TOI said quoting the Office of the Protector of Emigrants (PoE-Hyderabad).
The PoE has identified OKX Plus (Dubai-based), Lazada, Super Energy group and Zhentian group as the companies who offer these jobs. Several IT companies are based in Myawaddy, not far away from the IT SEZ area at Mae Sot, which is now being seen as the hub of the ‘slave labour’ market.
Chinese nationals largely control the Thailand-Myanmar border and Myawaddy is close to the border.
An IT professional from Mumbai urged the government to act immediately if they were to rescue the rest of the IT professionals trapped there. The PoE officials speaking to the Times of India also pointed out that some Indian nationals who were entrapped there were made aware of the consequences but they still took up those jobs.
The officials also noted that some Indians voluntarily opted to go there and received good remuneration once they lured in other Indians.
The PoE office while speaking to Times of India said the professionals who were hired travel using Thailand’s visa-on-arrival facility to reach Bangkok and are quickly transferred to Myanmar, hence making tracking their arrival harder.
They said it is harder to track them until the mission is contacted by the victims or their relatives. The first case was reported in July 2022. The PoE said that the missions in Thailand and Myanmar are taking necessary action to rescue Indians stranded there and the embassies at Yangon and Bangkok have issued advisories.
(with inputs from the Times of India)
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