Northeast Indians Trapped in Cyber Slavery: Over 230 Victims in Southeast Asia

GUWAHATI: Latest reports by the media reveal shocking statistics relating to Northeastern Indians being lured into "cyber slavery" across Southeast Asia.

According to "The Indian Express," at least 233 people have fallen prey to this abysmal trend, with 92 coming from Assam, 38 from Manipur, 33 from Nagaland, 20 from Sikkim, 18 from Meghalaya, 14 from Mizoram, 12 from Tripura, and 6 from Arunachal Pradesh.

The above problem is compounded by statistics from the Bureau of Immigration, where it indicates that between January 2022 and May 2024, some 29,466 Indians who traveled to Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, and Vietnam on visitor visas do not go back. Over half of these travelers fall within the 20-39 age bracket, and around 21,182 of them are males. It accommodates a large proportion of educated youths who are being courted by the promise of lucrative job opportunities in these Southeast Asian nations.

These have created an environment of great concern for the authorities. They have led the Centre to constitute a high-level inter-ministerial panel, which has instructed all states and union territories to verify on the ground with a view to collecting information about these people and will try to understand the full extent of this problem.

In response to the deepening crisis, the Ministry of Home Affairs met officials from departments like Telecom, Financial Intelligence Unit, Reserve Bank of India, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, National Investigation Agency, Central Bureau of Investigation, and other security experts from other agencies. It is a collaborative approach to strategize against and reduce the threats caused by this alarming trend.

As the probe goes, so does the sordid case of cyber slavery. But still, the problem of those caught in it; it's time to know and address it seriously to pave a wider way open for vulnerable groups of people seeking better opportunities elsewhere.

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