The Telangana police this week rescued two techies who were lured by Chinese-run gangs into working a job where they were committing cyber fraud and toiling 16 hours a day while being trapped in Cambodia. These two techies are not the only Indian techies who have been lured into these jobs. Over the past years many unsuspecting Indian young IT workers have been misled and trafficked into Cambodia and Myanmar and forced to work for Chinese cyber crime gangs which operate out of these nations.
The external affairs ministry last month said that India has rescued and repatriated about 250 Indians falsely lured into these jobs from Cambodia and 75 individuals returned home in the past three months alone.
MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that India remains committed to put an end to this practice. “We are also working with Cambodian authorities and with agencies in India to crack down on those responsible for these fraudulent schemes,” the MEA said in a press release.
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A separate report by News18 estimates that more than 5,000 Indians are allegedly being held against their will in the Southeast Asian country and are being forced to carry out cyber frauds on people back home. The government estimates that the fraudsters have allegedly duped people in India of at least Rs 500 crore over the last six months.
The US state department estimates that more than 10,000 people from around the globe have been forced to work for these Chinese cyber criminals. The UN estimates are far scarier.
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The UN believes that up to 120,000 people could be held in compounds across Myanmar and another 100,000 people held in Cambodia and elsewhere in conditions that are tantamount to modern slavery.
These unfortunate individuals are not just Indians. Filipino, Bangladeshi and citizens of other nationalities have also been duped into working for these companies.
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Sometimes they are told that they will be working for Thailand or Philippines-based companies but later they are taken via road to Cambodia and dumped there, with their passports seized.
These people who are victims of job fraud are then instructed to steal other’s life savings and sometimes even carry out cyber attacks against governmental or non-governmental organisations abroad, according to a report by Economic Times, which cited people familiar with developments.
What Is Cambodia Doing To Prevent This?
Cambodia in 2022 said that it received requests from Thailand, the Philippines, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Mongolia and Malaysia to look into the issue of forced labour and the ‘scamdemic’ that the nation is becoming infamous for.
The Cambodian government also said in 2022 that has freed about 900 individuals in 2022 alone from traffickers but that action was met with backlash from Chinese cyber crime gangs, the Economic Times report said as a year later, in October 2023, more than 20 organisations affiliated with the Cambodian government were subjected to a cyber attack.
Myanmar is the other hotspot where Chinese cyber traffickers operate with impunity.
News agencies say that endemic corruption and unrest have led to the proliferation of such gangs in both nations.
What Is China Doing?
China’s role remains unclear. The nation is being accused by Western nations of committing cyberespionage and attacking governmental as well non-governmental organisations through hacking and other forms of cyber attacks.
The Economic Times report also said that Chinese provincial governments and politicians provide support to these groups and that too with the help of some influencers.
On November 18, last year, China’s Ministry of Public Security announced that authorities in northern Myanmar had handed over some 31,000 suspects. Among them, police said, 63 were key players of scamming groups, the police said.
China was Cambodia’s largest source of international arrivals and a key driver of its tourism pre-pandemic but due to the nation’s rising ‘scamdemic’ status, tourism has also taken a hit, according to a report by Nikkei Asia.
“When travellers apply for passports and visas, the police in China ask where they are going. When they find out they were going to Cambodia, the police say Cambodia is not safe. A hundred people out of the 240 didn’t come,” a tour organiser was quoted as saying by the news agency.
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