Aneesh, 40, a resident of Alappuzha district, underwent major surgery in August 2024 to treat three blockages in his coronary arteries.
He came across a social media advertisement in November seeking call centre executives in Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, with a monthly salary of 6,000 Chinese yuan (around ₹72,000) during the days of his financial crisis.
Aneesh, who was working as a restaurant manager then, wasted no time in applying, unaware that it would land him in serious trouble, turning him into a victim of labour fraud and human trafficking.
He attended an online video interview conducted by a woman and was declared selected. She sent him the visa and a free flight ticket. Aneesh boarded a flight to Bangkok from Delhi on the night of December 15, 2024 with hopes of rebuilding his life. Everything seemed fine until he landed at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok.
Outside the airport, a cab driver was waiting for him with a placard with his name printed on it. There were not many conversations between the passenger and the driver except the essential ones as the vehicle sped past urban areas and deserted villages.
“After travelling for around five tedious hours, he took me to a riverbank reportedly on the Myanmar border. A motor boat was ready there waiting for me. I was asked to board the vessel, which sliced through the waves to take me to the other side of the river,” recalls Aneesh..
At sunrise, Aneesh realised that he had reached the KK Park building complex located at Myawaddy Township, Myanmar. The imposing multi-storey enclave that housed dozens of firms is located next to the Moei river on the Myanmar-Thailand border. It’s from this building complex that some alleged international online scamsters are operating their cyber factories to entrap unsuspecting victims.
Initially, Aneesh was assigned data entry work. However, since his typing speed was low, he was given training to improve it.
“I realised something was wrong within the first few weeks of joining the firm. I was asked by company officials to sign an employment contract on arrival. The weird clauses in the labour contract cemented my suspicion that I was trapped there in the foreign soil. The employer wanted me to sign an agreement that I will have to pay him $3,000 dollars (around ₹2.6 lakh) if I quit the job of my own volition during the contract period. Stranger was the second clause, which stated that I have to pay the company $1,000 (around ₹87,000) in the event of the firm terminating my service. I decided against signing the contract,” says Aneesh.
Aneesh considers himself lucky to have escaped what he calls a big trap. “The military launched a crackdown on illegal activities at KK Park one day following an alleged kidnapping case. I don’t know much about the details,” he says.
“The men in military uniform gave us two options: those who wanted to stay could stay, and others could leave. I didn’t think twice. I chose to go with the military personnel,” says Aneesh.
He and a few others from the State were among the 283 Indian nationals who were thus rescued and brought back in an Indian Air Force aircraft to Delhi on March 10.
Indian embassies in Myanmar and Thailand coordinated with local authorities to secure their repatriation from Mae Sot in Thailand. The victims were allegedly forced to work in fraudulent call centres engaged in cybercrime operating in regions along the Myanmar-Thailand border.
Nelson Joseph (name changed), a native of Kollam, and a Tamil Nadu native, who reached Bangkok to join the firms that recruited them for online jobs were together taken in a cab to a seemingly deserted resort along the Thailand-Myanmar border on December 30, 2024. A ferry took them to KK Park.
“The building illuminated with lights at night was a prison for the workers once they entered the compound. It was a self-sustained township complete with all basic services, including pharmacy, hospitals, and banking facilities,” remembers Joseph.
Before joining duty, Joseph was asked to surrender his mobile phone, passport, and other personal belongings. In an otherwise alien land and surroundings, the office, resembling a call centre, alone gave him an air of familiarity.
Phones kept on ringing incessantly. All the staff remained glued to their computers and made phone calls to different numbers. The room sounded like an international workspace where people of different ethnicities and accents spoke continuously over phones.
Well-built security personnel with intimidating looks and demeanour kept a close watch on them. An atmosphere of anxiety permeated the space. Though it left everyone uneasy, no one complained as everyone was keen to survive, ignoring the working conditions in the process.
“We weren’t allowed to talk to co-workers. What little we could share about our situation, we did when we occasionally met along the aisles leading to the toilets,” says Joseph.
During a fortnight-long training, a colleague who had come a week earlier broke the news that it was a scam centre where hundreds of people of different nationalities remained trapped.
“On completing training, I was given a woman’s ID. My job was to strike relationships with US citizens above 45 years of age through social networking sites and hand over the contacts to another group which would start responding to the messages,” he says.
Joseph tried to protest once about the working conditions, only to be threatened by his manager, a Chinese national, to be handed over to the Myanmar Army.
“Refusal of work meant physical torture and even starvation. When I insisted on quitting, I was given two options to be released: either cough up a fine of $3,600 or give three references from my contact list,” says Joseph.
“Long before the scam was widely reported we have been running awareness campaigns, including videos on social media, warning against falling for lucrative IT jobs offered on travel visas or visit visas, especially in Southeast Asian destinations such as Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia. Yet, people continue to go to these destinations, says Ajith Kolassery, Chief Executive Officer of NoRKA-Roots, which took the initiative to bring the Keralites home from Delhi.
Arun, 34, and his brother Sujith, 40 (names changed) from Ernakulam are relieved to return home from KK Park.e. However, the fear of what lies ahead lingers after unknowingly getting trapped in a scam centre involved in investment fraud.
Sujith M. (name changed), a 30-year-old from Kollam, remembers having a smooth passage across the border to Myanmar without being stopped at any immigration checkpoints. However, he sensed danger the moment he saw a machine gun-wielding boy barely in his teens standing guard outside his office.
He says he was held captive at KK Park for three months, during when his mobile phone usage was rationed while VPN access was required for Internet connectivity. Not only has he lost his job but his scheduled marriage is also now on the verge of collapse.
He says that a case involving a Chinese national trapped at the scam centre led to the rescue of people of all nationalities, including Indians.
“On our return, we were interrogated by various law enforcement agencies, which has become an embarrassment to us after the months-long ordeal in a foreign land,” says Sujith.
Those in the Kerala Police refuse to buy the claims of the evacuees to be victims of overseas recruitment scams at face value. The evacuees could face legal charges if any complaints are lodged against them, say the police.
That fear is real among the evacuees. “I did nothing wrong, but the fear stays with me. What if people see me as a scammer? I’m still trying to process everything and figure out my next step,” says Arun.
S. Irudaya Rajan, Chair of the International Institute of Migration and Development, describes the recruitment by scamsters as the ‘selling of people’ by a ‘labour mafia’ interlinked by agents in India and the destination countries in Southeast Asia. “Kerala needs a strong pre-departure migration orientation programme, and it should start in colleges. It would help uncover fraudulent recruitment practices, including fake offer letters,” he suggests.
Nandakishore Harikumar, a cybersecurity entrepreneur who is about to set up a scam intelligence research team, says he came across around 4,000 Facebook advertisements for such overseas recruitments during May and June 2024, when he was researching on the subject.
“Indians are among their targets, and that’s why they recruit Indians from various regions, as interacting in local languages creates more trust. Southeast Asian countries are being chosen for these kind of scams owing to their lax regulation regime and scant cooperation with enforcement agencies like the Interpol,” he says.
Meanwhile, Aneesh thanks his stars for deciding against signing the contract while being allegedly held hostage in Myanmar.
“Had I signed the contract and stayed there, I would have been forced to commit cyber fraud. I am happy to be back with my wife and son,” he says.
Though saved from cyber fraudsters and human traffickers, the uncertainties of life back home stare at these youngsters. Forced to return empty-handed and humiliated, they live in the constant fear of being held responsible for being ‘inadvertently’ part of the cyber misdoings.
Published - April 10, 2025 08:43 pm IST
