CHENNAI: About 50 Tamils are stranded in Myanmar and Thailand and have been trying all diplomatic channels to return to India.
Most of them are techies who were lured by agents in Thailand, from where they were illegally taken to Myawaddy in south-eastern Myanmar. The area bordering Thailand is not fully under the control of the Myanmarese government and certain ethnic armed groups hold sway over it.
Atul (name changed), from Tamil Nadu, said he was taken aback when he found out about the nature of the job they were performing after being promised a job in Thailand. "I was asked to lure customers through social media by asking them to book hotels online or make other investments. Then I came to know we were into online fraud," he added.
Of late, the Myanmarese have been targeting Indians for such jobs. "Earlier, they hired Chinese and Malaysians and now they are targeting Indian techies considering them as cheap labour," said Atul.
Some of the Tamil individuals managed to escape to Thailand but couldn't return to India due to legal hurdles. Among those who escaped is a woman. Most of the victims are well educated, and wanted to leave after learning about the nature of their job. But the only way out is to pay a ransom. "If you don't pay the sum promised, you get tortured," explained Atul.
Even worse is the harassment. "We were asked to meet a certain target. How could we cheat people and make money? When the target isn't met, our salary gets cut. They also have other rules, due to which we hardly get the pay we were promised," rued Atul, who joined the company a couple of months ago. When the techies protest, they are warned that they could even "disappear".
Apart from the Tamils, there are about 300 Indians stranded in the company, and many have been approaching their families or other official channels to rescue them. None of them wanted to reveal their identities as they feel anything could happen to them. "We reached the district collector. We had even written a letter to Chief Minister M K Stalin and approached Telengana governor Tamilisai Sounderrajan," says Atul.
Meanwhile, the state government is in touch with the migrants and efforts are on to bring them back from Myanmar and Thailand, according to official sources.
"We are in touch with the Indian embassy officials in Myanmar and Bangkok. The Tamils stranded in the two countries could be either deported or the Indian mission will fly them off," said the official.
"In case the Mission could not afford to bring back the Tamils, then the state would chip in and bring them back soon," the official added.
Many of the workers are warned to avoid Vietnam or other southeast nations for taking up jobs. "Only, Singapore and Malaysia are safe as of now," said an agent on condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile, leaders cutting across various political parties urged the state and central governments to take steps to bring back the stranded Indians.
In a press statement, Congress party assembly floor leader K Selvapernthagai, CPI state secretary R Mutharasan have urged the state and Centre to rescue the Tamils. TVK president T Velmurugan, AMMK general secretary TTV Dhinakaran and MNM also raised a similar demand.