Myanmar rerun in Cambodia: City youth fears for his safety

HYDERABAD: In a re-run of last year’s Myanmar job racket, a 21-year-old youngster from Hyderabad was promised a data entry operator job in Cambodia but was allegedly forced to scam and extort money from people. Mohammed Ismail Ullah has sough external affairs minister S Jaishankar’s help to get him back to Telangana. He also feared for his life, sensing threat from his employers. Ismail of Nagula Banda, Falaknuma, claimed his passport was taken away by the recruiters and beaten up for refusing to work as per their diktat. Ismail told STOI from Phnom Penh on Saturday that his passport was destroyed by the people who recruited him to work in Cambodia. “I was severely beaten up by them. I am suffering from injuries that have been inflicted on me,” Ismail said. He suffered injures on the head and legs. Lured by IT jobs in Thailand, over 300 Indians, including many Telugus, were held hostage in Myanmar which created a sensation in September 2022. They were forced to indulge in cyber crime activities and those who refused to obey the racketeers, were given electric shocks and other crude forms of punishment.“I have approached the Indian embassy for help. They have asked me to first lodge a complaint with local police but I am worried what the company representatives will do to me. I am scared for my life as I have been physically tortured by them,” Ismail said. His torture photographs were shared by social worker and MBT leader Amjed Ullah Khan on Twitter, who urged Jaishankar to rescue Ismail from the clutches of his employers. Upon reaching Cambodia, Ismail was allegedly asked to get involved in a work which was meant at scamming people and extracting money from them. In a letter to the MEA, Ismail’s brother Mohammed Yaseen Khan said his brother pursued a diploma course in Singapore and returned to Telangana on February 19 this year. When in Singapore, a person, also hailing from India, approached him with the job offer in Cambodia. The person in Singapore asked him for 2.5 lakh to take up processing of his job application and sought 1 lakh advance. Ismail paid the advance and first went to Bangkok on a visitor visa on April 7. “After reaching Bangkok, a taxi driver was waiting for him and took him to Cambodia border and dropped him there. Once he entered the country, another taxi driver took him directly to the company where he was supposed to work,” Yaseen Khan said in the letter to Jaishankar. “I refused to do the work and asked to be sent back to Telangana. They refused saying that they had paid 3 lakh to the agent who took me. I had to pay them back the amount. I told them I could not pay such an amount,” Ismail said. The agent who recruited is not in touch with Ismail though he has been trying to reach him.