wo Indonesian migrant workers returned home over the weekend after being held against their will and forced into working for an online scam operation in Myanmar’s rebel-controlled Myawaddy border region.
The two people, identified only by their initials AN and JAP, arrived at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten, shortly after midnight on Sunday, after departing from Thailand, where they had sought help.
“They were trafficked as online scammers in Myanmar near the border with Thailand,” Migrant Workers Protection Minister Abdul Kadir Karding told The Jakarta Post on Sunday. “They said in their accounts of the incident that they were tortured and had to work more than 21 hours.”
AN and JAP were tricked through social media with promises of jobs in Mae Sot town on the Thai side of the border opposite Myawaddy, but they were sent to Myanmar instead, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
AN was released by the scam operator as a result of health problems while JAP escaped the syndicate, the Foreign Ministry said. They then crossed the border into Thailand, where officials identified them as trafficking victims.
The Indonesian Embassy in Bangkok facilitated the repatriation of the two victims, covered the cost of their return and coordinated with Thai authorities.
The two victims are now staying at a government-run shelter in Banten before they travel on to their hometowns.
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