33 from Nagaland, 38 from Manipur stranded in South East Asia 'as cyber slaves' :::: About 30,000 Indians yet to return :::: Punjab tops list

Amid 'cyber slavery' reports, about 30,000 Indians yet to return from Southeast Asia; Punjab tops list

33 from Nagaland, 38 from Manipur stranded in South East Asia 'as cyber slaves'

New Delhi 

A large number Indians especially educated youths are reportedly being lured into Southeast Asian countries including the likes of Myanmar and Thailand by the promise of high-paying jobs.

But in the ultimate, those lured are only "trapped" in what has been described as ‘cyber slavery’.  Sources say "victims" are reportedly coerced into conducting cyber fraud and other illegal activities - most often under the threat of violence.

Sources in the Bureau of Immigration, Ministry of Home in the Govt of India, say even individuals from different northeastern states have been lured and trapped.

These include 33 from Nagaland, 38 from Manipur, 92 from Assam, 20 from Sikkim, 18 from Meghalaya,  14 from Mizoram, 12 from Tripura and six from Arunachal Pradesh,

Punjab tops the list and sources further said at least 29,466 Indians who traveled to Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, and Vietnam between January 2022 and May 2024 on visitor visas have not returned.

Over one-third of those unaccounted are residents of Punjab, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu. Notably, Thailand alone is responsible for over 69 percent of these cases, with 20,450 individuals reported missing.

According to the data, 2,946 are from Uttar Pradesh, 2,659 from Kerala, 2,140 from Delhi, 2,068 from Gujarat, 1,928 from Haryana, 1,200 from Karnataka, 1,169 from Telangana and 1,041 from Rajasthan.

A high-level inter-ministerial panel set by the centre has now directed all States and Union Territories (UTs) to conduct ground-level verification and get details of these people.

The Bureau of Immigration is learnt to have shared the data at a meeting held by the MHA with officials of the telecom department, Financial Intelligence Unit, Reserve Bank of India, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, NIA, CBI, security experts of other agencies.

Sources say more than half of those who traveled from January 2022 to May 2024

- 17,115 are in the 20-39 years age group and an estimated 21,182 are males.

About 30,000 yet to return from S-E Asia, Punjab tops list

The Centre’s high-level inter-ministerial panel has now directed all States and Union Territories (UTs) to conduct ground-level verification and get details of these people. 

While 29,466 of the 73,138 Indians who travelled to Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam on visitor visas from January 2022 to May 2024 are yet to return, more than half (17,115) of these are in the 20-39 years age group; 21,182 are males; over one-third are from three states — Punjab (3,667), Maharashtra (3,233) and Tamil Nadu (3,124); and Thailand accounts for over 69 per cent of the total at 20,450.

These new details have emerged in data compiled by the Bureau of Immigration, under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), amid reports of some Indians being trapped in “cyber slavery” in some Southeast Asian countries, reports 'Indian Express'. 

The Centre’s high-level inter-ministerial panel has now directed all States and Union Territories (UTs) to conduct ground-level verification and get details of these people, said sources. The panel, set up in May to look into the issue, had directed the immigration department to compile the data.

The Bureau of Immigration is learnt to have shared the data at a meeting held by the MHA with officials of the telecom department, Financial Intelligence Unit, Reserve Bank of India, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, NIA, CBI, security experts of other agencies, and senior officials of States and UTs.

According to the data (see chart), besides Punjab, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, 2,946 are from Uttar Pradesh, 2,659 from Kerala, 2,140 from Delhi, 2,068 from Gujarat, 1,928 from Haryana, 1,200 from Karnataka, 1,169 from Telangana and 1,041 from Rajasthan.

Among the rest, 675 are from Uttarakhand, 609 from West Bengal, 602 from Andhra Pradesh, 419 from Madhya Pradesh, 348 from Bihar, 263 from Jammu and Kashmir, 187 from Himachal Pradesh, 132 from Chandigarh, 126 from Odisha, 124 from Jharkhand, 115 from Goa, 92 from Assam, 73 from Chhattisgarh, 39 from Puducherry, 38 from Manipur, 33 from Nagaland, 22 from Ladakh, 20 from Sikkim, 18 from Meghalaya, 14 from Dadra and Nagar Haveli & Daman and Diu, 14 from Mizoram, 12 from Tripura, 6 from Arunachal Pradesh, 4 from Andaman & Nicobar Islands, and 2 from Lakshadweep.

“Among the 29,466 unreturned passengers, 21,182 are males. Of the total, 20,450 did not return from Thailand, 6,242 from Vietnam, 2,271 from Cambodia, and 503 from Myanmar,” said a source in the security establishment.

“The age-wise break-up shows that 8,777 are aged 20-29 years; 8,338 are aged 30-39 years; 4,819 are 40-49 years; 2,436 are 50-59 years; 1,896 are 10-19 years; 1,543 are 0-9 years; 1,189 are 60-69 years; 399 are 70-79 years; 60 are 80-89 years; and 9 are 90-99 years,” said the source.

According to the district-wise data, 1,017 are from Mumbai Suburban, 784 from Gorakhpur, 700 from Bengaluru Urban, 585 from Ahmedabad, 561 from Ludhiana, 523 from Pune, 483 from Thane, 455 from Chennai, 440 from Jalandhar and 425 from Hyderabad.

The immigration department has found that 12,493 went from Delhi airport, 4,699 from Mumbai, 2,395 from Kolkata, 2,296 from Kochi, 2,099 from Chennai, 1,911 from Bengaluru, and 1,577 from Hyderabad.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation was also asked to implement measures to prevent further outflow of potential victims.

As reported by The Indian Express earlier, the victims are sent on the pretext of data entry jobs, and then forced to carry out cyber frauds. Speaking to The Indian Express, some of the rescued men had said they were offered “lucrative” jobs by agents, and sent to these countries where their passports would be taken away.

They were then employed by these “scamming companies”, where they had to create fake social media accounts, using photos of women, to lure people to invest in a cryptocurrency app or fraud investment funds. As soon as the targets invested, they would be “ghosted” (all communication stopped suddenly) or “blocked”.

Analysis of data by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), a division of the MHA, had found an increase in the number of cyber crimes targeting Indians — about 45 per cent were found to originate from the Southeast Asia region. Around 1 lakh cyber complaints have been registered with the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal since January 2023.

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