Cambodia job scam: Rescued from fraudulent employers, 60 Indians return home

The Indian embassy in Cambodia took to X on Thursday to inform that the "first batch of 60 Indian nationals rescued by the embassy from fraudulent employers" have now returned home. The Indian mission also thanked the Cambodian authorities for their support. "Always committed to helping Indians abroad," it said.

The development came just days after a human trafficking racket was busted in Andhra's Visakhapatnam. The Andhra Pradesh police said on Tuesday that around 300 Indians 'revolted' against their handlers in Cambodia on May 20, leading to most of them being arrested in the foreign country.

"As many as 150 youth from the port city and its vicinity have been stuck in Cambodia for a year already, where they are being coerced to carry out cyber crime and ponzi scams by Chinese handlers," police were quoted by news agency PTI as saying.

Meanwhile, Visakhapatnam Police Commissioner A Ravi Shankar said many people called up Visakhapatnam city police Whatsapp numbers and sent videos. The report cited Visakhapatnam Joint Commissioner of Police Fakkeerappa Kaginelli as saying that nearly 5,000 Indians were trafficked to Cambodia from across the country through various agents.

Shankar noted that these trafficked Indians caused large-scale riots in Jinbei and Compound, Sihanoukville in Cambodia, which is allegedly a hub for cybercrime, PTI reported.

On May 18, Vizag police arrested Chukka Rajesh, S Kondala Rao and M Jnaneshwar Rao on human trafficking charges for luring youth from India with data entry jobs in Singapore but actually trafficking them to Cambodia to carry out cyber crimes.

"In India, young people looking for job opportunities are recruited by unregistered agents and are then sent to Cambodia via Bangkok or Singapore," Ravi Shankar was quoted by NDTV as saying.

Once in Cambodia, the youth would be held captive, tortured and compelled by Chinese handlers to execute scams such as task game fraud, stock market fraud and others, police said.

(With inputs from agencies)