New Delhi: India has issued yet another advisory against fake job rackets targetting Indian youths in the neighbouring country of Myanmar, flagging a new location at Pha Lu as a dangerous area.
The Indian embassy in Yangon issued a statement Monday, saying, “There has been an increase in the incidents of Indian nationals falling victim to the international crime syndicates active in the Myawaddy region on Myanmar-Thailand border.”
“We would re-emphasize the importance of adhering to our advisories on the subject for not taking any such job offers without consulting the respective Indian Embassies,” it added.
This was in continuation of the embassy’s advisories on the subject issued in July 2022, October 2022, March 2023 and September 2023. In the past, Myawaddy, Yangon, Laukkaing, Lashio and Tachileik have also been flagged as dangerous areas.
“A new location at Pha Lu area, South of Myawaddy town is reported to have emerged recently, where most of the Indian victims are being trafficked into, via Thailand,” the embassy said in its statement. According to the embassy, besides Indians, people from countries like Malaysia and the UAE have also fallen victim to such syndicates.
Myanmar has been facing a military coup since February 2021. Over the last few months, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has expressed concern over an increase in violence in the country. In March this year, the Indian government relocated diplomatic staff from the Indian consulate in Sittwe to Yangon due to security concerns, and asked all Indian nationals in the Rakhine state to evacuate themselves.
The MEA had said in March that the situation in Myanmar remained a “cause of concern” because of the deterioration in the security situation.
“There is a lot of fighting happening there, and the security situation is not conducive,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal had said, adding that the Indian government called upon all sides to promote peace and stability in the country.
As a neighbour, Myanmar is strategically important for New Delhi. Currently, the military junta in the country is fighting off insurgents and ethnic minority resistance groups.
Last week, an independent advisory group of international experts, called the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar, released a report in which it claimed that resistance forces were gaining an edge. Since 2022, the situation in Myanmar has been one of “expanding resistance control versus corresponding military junta losses,” the report read.
An emerging debate in the Indian government is about whether to fence the 1,643 kilometre-long India-Myanmar border, especially after Union Home Minister Amit Shah said in February that this would become a major undertaking of the government.
Like Myanmar, other countries in the region, such as Cambodia, Laos and Thailand are viewed as centres of South Asia’s human trafficking industry.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
Also Read: Meet the women ambassadors posted in Delhi, a tight-knit and growing community