On Friday, Indonesian officials announced that they working to rescue dozens of their nationals who were trafficked to Myanmar to work as cyber scammers.
Judha Nugraha, an official in Indonesia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, reported that there are at least 20 Indonesian job seekers trapped in Myawaddy township, which is currently the site of an armed conflict between Myanmar’s military and ethnic Karen rebels.
According to Nugraha, fake recruiters offered the victims high-paying jobs in Thailand but instead trafficked them to Myawaddy, about 567 kilometres (352 miles) south of Naypyidaw, the capital, to perform cyber scams for crypto websites or apps.
According to a nonprofit group, the Indonesian Migrant Worker Union, some victims of human trafficking were tortured by their traffickers when they failed to reach certain targets and were forced to pay more than $10,000 in travel costs. Authorities have stated that the victims were likely trafficked to Myanmar by illegal means since there are no records of their arrival in Myanmar’s immigration system.
Indonesian officials are working with authorities in Naypyidaw, Myawaddy and Thailand, and have asked for assistance from other organizations to help get the victims out of the area safely, he said.
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi told a news conference on Friday that the government has worked on 1,841 human trafficking cases in the past three years where victims are Indonesians who were duped into online scams.
That number includes 1,138 Indonesians who were repatriated from Cambodia last year, Marsudi said.
Marsudi said the government is also working to help Indonesian victims of online scams in Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and the Philippines.