India rescuing citizens forced into cyber fraud schemes in Cambodia

NEW DELHI: The Indian government said it was rescuing its citizens who were lured into employment in Cambodia and were being forced to participate in cyber fraud schemes.

The Indian embassy in Cambodia is working with Cambodian authorities and has rescued and repatriated about 250 Indians, including 75 in the last three months, India’s Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a statement on Saturday.

Jaiswal was responding to Indian news reports that stated more than 5,000 Indians are trapped in Cambodia and being forced to carry out cyber frauds on people back home.

“We are also working with Cambodian authorities and with agencies in India to crack down on those responsible for these fraudulent schemes,” Jaiswal said.

The Indian government and its embassy in Cambodia have issued several advisories informing them about such scams, the spokesperson said.

The Cambodian embassy in India did not respond immediately to a request for comment on Sunday.

Several reports said Indian nationals in Cambodia were reportedly held captive and coerced into cyber fraud activities. Individuals were coerced into scamming people in India and, at times, extorting money by impersonating law enforcement officials and claiming to have discovered suspicious items in parcels.

Earlier, the Ministry of Home Affairs convened a meeting with officials from the Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, and security experts to devise a rescue strategy. Centre aims to free the trapped Indians and combat fraudulent schemes.

Second Secretary (Consular and Diaspora) Avaran Abraham said that they are getting four to five complaints on average almost regularly from different parts of Cambodia. “The moment we get a request we inform the police. We also guide them on how to travel to the embassy, and since they are in trauma we even counsel them,” he told The Indian Express newspaper.