Indians forced to work as cyber criminals in Myanmar: Report

About 300 Indians held hostage in Myanmar’s Myawaddy are forced to work as cyber criminals. Their passports have been seized.

These people work for 16 hours a day without any pay and are tortured if they refuse to work.

The “billion-dollar casino and tourism complex” in Myanmar is called Shwe Kokko, which is owned by Chinese businessman She Zhijiang.

According to a Times of India report, hostages are electrocuted if they refuse to work at KK Park. One hostage told the publication that the camp where these people work is enclosed by high boundary walls manned by guards armed with sniper rifles.

“We are slaves now. They have transformed us into cyber-criminals committing large-scale data fraud every day just to stay alive,” a hostage told the publication. The phishing targets are mostly in Australia and New Zealand.

The Keralites were trapped by offering them jobs as data operators in Thailand between July and August. These people were abducted at the airport in Thailand and were trafficked to Myanmar by making them illegally cross the border through a forest at gunpoint.

“We knew we were being kidnapped the moment we realised that the armed persons travelling with us from the airport were not there to protect us,” a hostage told the publication, adding, “We were briefed on the rules and regulations, the crucial one being that they will shoot us and dump the body, along with our passport, at the Thailand border if we try to escape."

Social activist Amjed Ullah Khan told, "Nine people have returned to India. Some of them were made to pay ransoms in cryptocurrency. On Thursday, the Pravasi Bharatiya Sahayata Kendra of the external affairs ministry provided telephone numbers and an email ID to be shared with victims in need of help."