Beatings, electric shocks, no food: tortured Indonesian scam victims in Myanmar plead for freedom from Chinese gang
- Jakarta is scrambling to rescue 20 citizens held captive by a Chinese-run online scam ring after they were lured with higher pay and trafficked to the strife-torn Myawaddy
- The sister of one of the victims said the group was being confined ‘in a dark room, with no food, drinks, and running water in the bathroom’
Rina Komaria, a diplomat at the Indonesian foreign ministry’s directorate of protection of Indonesian citizens, told This Week in Asia on Thursday that it had followed up the evacuation requests by sending diplomatic notes to its Myanmar counterpart, coordinating with local authorities, and working with groups such as the International Organization for Migration.
“The challenges on the ground are indeed high. Most Indonesian citizens are in Myawaddy, the location of the armed conflict between the Myanmar military and rebel groups,” Rina said.
“But we have urged the Myanmar authorities to take effective steps to save Indonesian citizens and to map the networks in Myawaddy through collaboration with various online scam monitoring agencies. Formal and informal approaches also continue to be made.”
The families of the captives, alongside Indonesian Migrant Workers Union, on Tuesday reported two Indonesians who were allegedly involved with the human trafficking ring to the national police’s Criminal Investigation Agency, following their similar complaint to the National Human Rights Commission in March. The victims’ families have also been requesting help from the foreign ministry since February.