The Indian government has so far rescued 250 citizens in Cambodia who were forced to run online scams.
They were promised jobs but “forced to undertake illegal cyber work”, India’s foreign ministry said.
Recent reports have said more than 5,000 Indians stuck in Cambodia were forced to operate cyber-fraud schemes.
Hundreds of thousands of people from around the world are estimated to have fallen prey to human traffickers running job scams in South East Asia.
Victims, mostly young and tech-savvy, are promised jobs and then lured into illegal online work ranging from money laundering and crypto fraud to so-called love scams, where they pose as lovers online.
A UN report said in August 2023 that at least 120,000 people in Myanmar, and another 100,000 in Cambodia, were forced into operating cyber-fraud schemes.
This is the latest in a series of rescues of such victims in South East Asia.
Over the weekend, Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson of India’s foreign ministry, said that the country was working closely with Cambodian authorities to “crack down on those responsible for these fraudulent schemes”.
India said it had rescued 75 people in the past three months while the timeline for the rest isn’t clear.
