'Verify credentials': MEA cautions against job fraud after repatriating 283 Indians from Myanmar

NEW DELHI: The ministry of external affairs on Tuesday reiterated its caution to Indian nationals to verify the credentials of foreign employers before accepting job offers, after 266 men and 17 women were rescued from scam call centers in Myanmar's Myawaddy.
The ministry said that Indian embassies coordinated with Myanmar and Thailand to rescue Indian nationals Mae Sot in Thailand.
"The Government of India has been making sustained efforts to secure the release and repatriation of Indian nationals lured to various southeast Asian countries, including Myanmar, with fake job offers. These persons were subsequently made to indulge in cybercrime and engage in other fraudulent activities in scam centres operating in regions along the Myanmar-Thailand border," MEA said in a statement.
"The Government of India wishes to reiterate its caution, circulated earlier from time to time through advisories and social media posts, about such rackets. Indian nationals are once again advised to verify credentials of foreign employers through Missions abroad and check the antecedents of recruiting agents and companies before taking up a job offer," it added.
The evacuees belong to multiple states, including Andhra, Telangana, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab, UP and Bengal. However, It was not immediately known where the plane landed in India.
Authorities in Myanmar, under pressure from ally China, have cracked down in recent weeks on illegal online fraud operations that have flourished in the country’s lawless borderlands.
Around 7,000 workers from at least two dozen countries have been freed, the majority of them Chinese, but many have been languishing in squalid conditions in temporary holding camps on the Thai-Myanmar border.
Authorities say many victims were recruited through social media and fake employment agencies, particularly targeting those with IT skills. These scams, often operating in Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar, promise lucrative salaries and attractive benefits. Once the recruits arrive, their passports are confiscated, and they are held in heavily guarded compounds, coerced into running online scams under the threat of violence.