The Tamil Nadu police held a meeting with officials of the Ministry of External Affairs to discuss strategies to curb cyber slavery.
According to an official press release, Director-General of Police and Head of the Police Force Shankar Jiwal led the delegation of officials from the State police in deliberating the issues relating to cyber slavery with Surinder Bhagat, Protector-General of Emigrants, Ministry of External Affairs, and M. Rajkumar, Protector of Emigrants, Tamil Nadu & Puducherry, on February 6.
Cyber slavery is a crime in which educated youth are offered jobs such as Data Entry Operator or Customer Care Executive abroad, and taken to scam compounds in Southeast Asian countries through illegal recruitment agents or fake advertisements on social media. They are lured with promises of high salary, free boarding and lodging, and then subjected to physical abuse if they refuse to work.
The Crime Branch-CID is the nodal agency for handling cyber slavery cases in Tamil Nadu, the press release said.
So far, 24 cases of cyber slavery and related offences have been registered in districts such as Chennai, Ariyalur, Cuddalore, Thanjavur, Thiruvarur, Thoothukudi, Madurai and Coimbatore. A total of 54 illegal recruitment agents and other offenders, including six Malaysian nationals, have been arrested and remanded in judicial custody.
Due to the coordinated efforts of the Tamil Nadu Police and State and Central government agencies, 29 passengers who were planning to travel to Laos/Cambodia were sensitised about the threats of cyber slavery at the airport immigration counters and voluntarily offloaded.
A total of 28 Look Out Circulars (LOCs) were issued against individuals involved in cyber slavery cases. Over 100 social media accounts of illegal recruitment agents were blocked under the Information Technology Act, the release said.
