Myanmar slave trade: ‘Thanks to mid-day, my son is coming home’

The woman shows a photo of Jagdish Kandpal, one of the agents who ran the fake IT job racket for the Chinese scammers in Myanmar. File pic

The 26-year-old Thane man, who was forced by Indian agents into slavery along the Myanmar-Thailand border, will be returning home this week, after 128 days. His mother thanked mid-day for consistently highlighting her ordeal, which forced the Thane cops to file an FIR and book the agents. The agents, who ran the fake IT job racket for the Chinese scammers in Myanmar, are still at large.

The woman, a teacher, said that after the FIR was filed, she was able to approach Indian embassies in Myanmar and Thailand to get her son out of the clutches of gun-toting private armies guarding the fraud factories run by Chinese "monsters" on the border.

"mid-day helped me immensely at a time when I had lost all hopes of getting my son out of the hellhole, after knocking at every door. Your articles forced the Thane police to register an FIR, which helped me reach out to the officials of Indian embassies in Thailand and Myanmar," said the mother.

An armed man guards the camp; (right) a camp along Myanmar border where captives are held. File pics

Kasarvadavli police converted her complaint in the matter, lodged on October 21, into an FIR on October 29. They booked two - Jagdish Tiwari and Jagdish Kandpal, agents of the Myanmar fake IT job racket - following mid-day's reports.

Also Read: Myanmar slave trade: Indian embassy releases list of scam agents

"Had they not filed the FIR, the authorities concerned would not have woken up to rescue my son. I express my gratitude to the entire mid-day team for amplifying a mother's cry for help. Now, my son is set to return to India on December 23, all thanks to mid-day," she added.

"The FIR was registered under Sections 363 (kidnapping) and 420 (cheating) of the IPC, but no arrest has been made yet. Kandpal has gone underground," she said.

Her son left the country on August 17 for Bangkok from where Chinese agents trafficked him across the border to Myanmar on August 19.

One of her relatives, who had been following up with Indian embassy officials in Bangkok, received an email on December 2. It read: "...he [Thane man] is presently under detention of Tak Immigration in Mae Sot [a city in Thailand] since November 30, 2022. As per local immigration law, he will be transferred from Mae Sot to Bangkok after completion of formalities there for further processing at IDC [Immigration Detention Centre] Bangkok. The Mission is coordinating with the authorities concerned for his early repatriation to India."

Recently, a police officer told the woman that her son would be landing in Mumbai on the evening of December 23. When asked how her son reached Bangkok from Myanmar, she said, "I am yet to get clarity on this as my son seems to be terrified. I will ask him everything once he is back home."

mid-day has been consistently highlighting the harrowing ordeals of Indians who have been held captives in Myanmar, where they were forcefully taken after landing in Bangkok, on the pretext of getting a good IT job.

The captives are forced to commit cybercrimes at dozens of companies run by Chinese masterminds in Myanmar. Each person is given a daily target and those who fail to achieve it are allegedly assaulted.

A handful of survivors who somehow returned to India told mid-day that the Chinese captors assaulted people with iron rods and electric batons after tying up their hands and legs.

Not just men, women, too, from different nations have been held captives at the Myanmar camps. The captors are allegedly running prostitution rackets as well.

Aug 17
Day the Thane man had left India