Myanmar slave trade: Indian embassy releases list of scam agents

Several Indians are being tortured into financial crimes in Myanmar. Representation pic

After scores of media reports highlighted the entrapment of Indian job seekers by Chinese scammers, the Embassy of India in Yangon has issued a list of 36 most wanted human traffickers and their companies that are trapping IT-skilled people in Myanmar's cyber fraud factories. The lists of suspected agents, agencies and companies have been prepared on the basis of inputs shared by the victims, who are illegally brought to Myawaddy in Myanmar and tortured into committing financial crimes.

In the most wanted list, the Ministry of External Affairs has named 10 agencies, 10 Chinese companies and 16 agents and shared their contact numbers along with the location from where they operate.

The Indian human traffickers in connivance with their Chinese masters are operating from different parts of the country including New Delhi, Hyderabad, Guduvanchery, Telangana, Thiruvananthapuram, Allapuzha, Mumbai, Alappugha, Chennai, Visakhapatnam, Siwan near Patna and Didwana.

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"These companies are also recruiting Indian youth through their shallow front companies which are mainly used for sponsoring of Visa. It may also be noted that the companies may frequently change their names and locations but continue trapping the IT skilled job seekers for cyber crime activities," said the embassy of India in Yangon.

The rogues' lists released by the ministry of external affairs

mid-day is in touch with a handful of Indians who were smuggled into Myanmar by human traffickers.

The victims, who were lured with jobs of digital sales and marketing executives with handsome pay, were asked to travel to Bangkok on a visit visa. But once they reached Thailand, they were taken to Myanmar by gun-toting men to work in the cybercrime set-ups in Myawaddy.

The Chinese captors did not allow the workers to take proper rest and forced them to work for about 18 hours a day. In the name of lucrative jobs in Thailand, the victims are told to target wealthy people across the globe to siphon money off their bank accounts.

The victims are given a monthly target, failing which they are given electric shocks and baton-charged. The perpetrators also shove iron rods into their bodies.

In certain cases, dissenters are kept in a water jail for 24 hours without any food, drink and rest.

The racketeers, with the help of their foot soldiers in India, have been targeting IT-skilled youth on social media. In many cases, the fraudsters sent offer letters on WhatsApp,

but the promise of attractive pay and incentives got the better of the victims. They even agreed to travel to Bangkok on a visit visa despite knowing that they were going there to work.

Rs 5L
Amount paid by some of the victims for their safe return from Mayanmar