The Ministry of External Affairs has said that many Indian youths lured by fake job recruitment offers were trapped in Southeast Asian countries including Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia.
Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan told the Rajya Sabha that a total of 414 Indians were trapped by firms promising fake IT jobs in Myanmar and 292 of them have been repatriated to India.
The Indian mission in Cambodia also rescued over 180 Indian nationals trapped in similar scams and repatriated them to India.
"Since July 2022, our missions in Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia have issued various detailed advisories, upon receiving information that Indian nationals were being entrapped in fake job rackets, to alert the job seekers, and advised them to verify all antecedents of recruiting agents and companies before accepting an employment offer and not be enticed and entrapped in fraudulent job offers in these countries," the minister said.
"The ministry in coordination with the Indian missions/posts abroad and offices of Protector of Emigrants in India takes quick and decisive action whenever instances of exploitation of job seekers by illegal agents come to notice. A list of 2,548 illegal agents has been notified on the eMigrate portal. This information is regularly updated based on complaints filed by aggrieved individuals," said Muraleedharan.
"Complaints against illegal agents and dubious IT firms luring Indian youths with false recruitment offers through various channels are regularly shared with the respective state governments for suitable action against the culprits under extant laws," added the minister, while responding to a question by MPs Pramod Tiwari, S Kalyanasundaram, M Mohamed Abdulla and Dr Kirodi Lal Meena.
Fifteen Indian nationals duped by fake job offers from crime syndicates in Myanmar were repatriated on Wednesday according to the Embassy of India in Yangon. Earlier, in March 2023, eight Indians who were victims of such syndicates were repatriated from the Southeast Asian country.