Chart: 30,000 Indians in Southeast Asia amid cyber slavery allegations

India’s Home Ministry’s Bureau of Immigration has ordered states and Union Territories to investigate those who have not returned from Southeast Asia, amid allegations that some of these Indians are trapped in cyber slavery schemes. An agency report reviewed by the Indian Express shows that of the 73,138 Indians who traveled to Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam between January 2022 and May 2024, nearly 30,000 have not yet returned. Looking at the data on these individuals, it appears that most of the non-returners are men (72 percent), aged between 20 and 39 years old (58 percent) and have used Delhi airport to leave the country (42 percent) .

This is despite the fact that the non-returnees come from across the country, with between 3,100 and 3,700 each from the populous states of Punjab, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu and another 2,900 from Uttar Pradesh. Delhi itself was the area with the sixth most people not returning, despite its smaller size, with 2,100.

In March, reports emerged of 5,000 Indians trapped in cyber slavery in Cambodia, as the Ministry of Home Affairs had been working on a strategy to return individuals home. A source told the Indian Express at the time that South Indians at the time had been tricked into traveling to Cambodia on the pretext of being offered data entry positions, but were instead forced to carry out cyber fraud against Indians back home. Passports are usually taken from victims of cyber slavery so that they cannot return home. People caught up in these schemes are usually forced to work long hours and attacked by their captors when they try to escape.

According to the March article, the scam had generated 500 crore rupees ($60 million) in the previous six months. The scam methods reportedly included fake cryptocurrency investments and extortions, in some cases with victims of the scams being told that police had found incriminating material on them. The issue came into the spotlight when a cybercrime operation involving people brought to Cambodia was busted in Odisha in December and eight were arrested. In the aftermath, three people stuck in Cambodia were brought back to Bengaluru. Those affected said they knew another 200 Indians were being held and that they had worked with Chinese and Malaysian nationals in Cambodia.

In March and now, the Bureau of Immigration is working with the Department of Telecommunications. Today, the department said it had disconnected more than 20 million mobile connections and blocked 200,000 mobile phones containing unclear or falsified customer information and suspected of possibly being used in cybercrime. The department has also been working to block spoofing, which fraudulently displays a local phone number instead of a foreign phone number when placing a call.