25 Youth Stuck in Cambodia Return to Vizag

Visakhapatnam: From among the 5,000 human-trafficked youth from India, including 150 from Andhra Pradesh, stuck in Cambodia, 25 of the AP youth safely returned to Visakhapatnam on Friday.

One batch of youth arrived by a flight at 4:45 pm and the other at 9 pm.

Visakhapatnam city police commissioner Ravi Shankar Ayyanar received the rescued individuals at the Visakhapatnam Airport.

The commissioner revealed that police had formed 20 teams to pursue 20 different leads from the victims about their traffickers. He said nearly 70 agents and sub-agents of the traffickers are present in Visakhapatnam alone.

Ravi Shankar said police will focus on agents, passports, bank transactions, Bureau of Immigration, call details, and email records. All details related to transnational crimes will be collected through the ministries of home and external affairs.

The commissioner conceded that the victims had been subject to inhumane treatment, including being deprived of food, locked in dark rooms, and physically beaten with baseball bats.

They had been lured with promises of data entry jobs in Singapore. But they ended up being trafficked to Cambodia, where they had been held captive, tortured and forced to commit cybercrimes against Indian citizens.

Treatment of victims from Visakhapatnam in Cambodia varied based on their performance in cybercrimes. Underperforming victims received food only once a day, those who scammed many people got two meals a day. High performers could attend parties.

The duration of captivity of victims varied from three months to one year.

According to initial statements by the victims, middlemen collected ₹1.5 lakh from each of them. They handed them over to Chinese agents who trafficked them to Cambodia and trained them in committing various cybercrimes, including FedEx scams and stock market, task-game, and online job frauds.

An estimated ₹120 crore has been scammed from Visakhapatnam alone.

The commissioner clarified that the victims will be given time to rest before a police team led by joint commissioner of police K. Fakirappa and cybercrime inspector Bhavani collects details from them.