Curb cyber slavery
THE lethal cocktail of human trafficking and cybercrime has taken its toll on tens of thousands of Indians, who are trapped in Southeast Asian countries and are being forced to commit cyber fraud and other illegal activities. No less alarming is the fact that these persons are luring their own compatriots into investing in dubious cryptocurrency schemes. Around 30,000 of the 73,000-odd Indians who travelled to Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam on a visitor visa from January 2022 to May 2024 are yet to return; more than half of these ‘cyber slaves’ are in the 20-39 age group, while Punjab tops the statewise list of missing persons, followed by Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.
The modus operandi of illegal recruitment agencies is rather simple: job-seekers from India are offered ‘lucrative’ posts of data entry and call centre operators; once they reach their destination, their passports are taken away and they have no option but to do under duress what their employers want. The inter-ministerial panel set up by the Centre to look into the matter has reportedly identified gaps in the banking, immigration and telecom sectors; thus, inter-departmental cooperation is the need of the hour to tackle this menace. At long last, the Union Ministry of Telecommunications has decided to disconnect around two crore mobile connections that were procured on the basis of forged documents or are being misused for cybercrime.
Such is the audacity of cyber fraudsters that they managed to dupe renowned industrialist SP Oswal of Rs 7 crore. Crime control is vitally important, but it must go hand in hand with a reality check. The desperation of Indians to take up jobs in other developing countries runs counter to the country’s reputation of being the world’s fastest-growing major economy. The lofty goal of Viksit Bharat will remain a pipe dream if domestic job opportunities fail to meet the needs and aspirations of skilled young people.
