'Cyber Slavery' concerns rise as around 29,000 Indians who traveled to Southeast Asia remain missing

In light of accusations that certain Indians are being held as "cyber slaves" in some Southeast Asian nations, the Bureau of Immigration, a division of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has compiled data that includes new information.

Out of 73,138 Indians who traveled on visitor visas to Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, and Vietnam, 29,466 have not returned.

More than one-third of those who have not returned belong to the states of Punjab (3,667), Maharashtra (3,233), and Tamil Nadu (3,124).

According to the data, over 69% of the total individuals who have not returned are in Thailand.

The sources said that all States and Union Territories (UTs) have now been ordered by the government's high-level inter-ministerial body to carry out on-the-ground verification to gather information about these individuals.

From January 2022 to May 2024, the immigration department was instructed to gather the information by the panel, which was formed in May 2024 to investigate the matter.

The data was shared by the Bureau of Immigration earlier this month during a meeting organized by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MHA) with representatives from the telecom department, Reserve Bank of India, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, NIA, CBI, senior officials from States and Union territories, and security experts from other agencies.

According to the data, 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.

On March 28, a reputed news agency alleged more than 5,000 Indians were imprisoned in Cambodia and coerced into committing cybercrimes.

The inter-ministerial commission was then established by the government to investigate the matter and find any gaps. The panel found that there are reportedly gaps in the banking, immigration, and telecom industries.

The Bureau of Immigration was instructed to create procedures to identify Indian nationals who might be victims of "cyber slavery" at the meeting earlier this month.

It was also requested that the Ministry of Civil Aviation put policies in place to stop possible victims from leaving the country.

As per the reports of the news agency, the victims are coerced into performing cyber crimes under the guise of data entry jobs.

A few of the men who were saved claimed that agents had given them "lucrative" jobs and had sent them to these nations where their passports were revoked.

After being hired by these "scamming companies," they were required to fabricate social media profiles with pictures of women to trick people into downloading fraudulent investment funds or cryptocurrency apps.

As soon as people invested, the targets would either be "blocked" or "ghosted" (all communication would end abruptly).

According to data analysis conducted by the MHA's Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Center (I4C), there has been a rise in cybercrimes targeting Indians, with approximately 45% of these cases coming from Southeast Asia.

Since January 2023, around one lakh cyber complaints have been filed with the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal.