Hundreds of Indians rescued from Cambodia scam factories
By Cherylann Mollan
The Indian government has said that it has rescued 250 citizens in Cambodia who were forced to run online scams.
Seventy-five people were rescued in the past three months while the timeline for the rest isn’t clear.
They were promised jobs but “forced to undertake illegal cyber work”, a statement from the foreign ministry said.
Recent reports have said more than 5,000 Indians stuck in Cambodia were forced to operate cyber-fraud schemes.
Hundreds of thousands of people from around the world are estimated to have fallen prey to human traffickers running job scams in South East Asia.
A UN report said in August 2023 that at least 120,000 people in Myanmar, and another 100,000 in Cambodia, were forced into operating cyber-fraud schemes.
Over the weekend, Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson of India’s foreign ministry, said that the country was working closely with Cambodian authorities to “crack down on those responsible for these fraudulent schemes”.
