Look Before You Leap: MEA On Foreign Job Offers After Bringing Back 283 Indians From Myanmar

283 Indians From Myanmar

New Delhi: Computer literate and fluent in English, yet unable to find a suitable job in India?

Think twice before accepting a lucrative job offer in Myanmar. There is every possibility that you are being scammed into joining a cyber crime syndicate, operating out of China.

On Monday, an Indian Air Force (IAF) flight brought back 283 Indians who were rescued from camps operating in Myawaddy, a remote location Myanmar, close to that country’s borders with Thailand. Indian authorities entered Myanmar and went to the detention centres where these 283 people were being held after their rescue.

The rescued Indians – mostly from states like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and West Bengal – were then taken by bus to the Mae Sot airport in Thailand, where the IAF aircraft was waiting for them. Another group, of nearly 240 individuals, is likely to arrive in India by Tuesday night.

The repatriates narrated how they were treated after reaching Myanmar.

“Our passports were taken away and then we were taken to Myawaddy. Once there, our mobile phones were also taken away. We were then forced to work for hours, phishing accounts, extracting money by offering bogus investment schemes and even blackmailing people by using online dating sites. After work, we were herded into cramped, military-style tents and given extremely poor quality food. There would be torture and beatings, if anybody protested,” a man from Andhra Pradesh said.

The Ministry of External Affairs said that it has been working with the governments of Myanmar and Thailand for several months now, to secure the release of the Indians. China, under tremendous international pressure, also adopted a ‘hands-off’ approach, allowing security agencies in Myanmar to act against these ‘labour’ camps where nearly 7,000 people from across the world were being forced to live and work.

Most of those rescued said that they had lost all hope of returning home alive. “We had no access to the outside world. Fortunately, a few people managed to get hold of a mobile phone and alerted Indian authorities. Action started after that. Within a few weeks, our tormentors started to flee, fearing arrests,” a youth from Uttar Pradesh said.

The Ministry of External Affairs has made it clear that it’s Missions in Myanmar should be contacted for more details, after any job offer in that country. People should only accept the offers if Indian officials at the Missions give a go-ahead after checking with the company involved.

“In fact, such precautions should be taken whenever there are job offers from strife-ridden countries. We have lost people in the Russia-Ukraine War and one person was recently shot dead near the Jordan-Israel border,” a Ministry official said.