Diplomatic services of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan have successfully freed their citizens, as well as Kyrgyz nationals, who had become victims of a criminal group after being lured into forced labor in Myanmar, Uzbekistan’s Dunyo news agency reported on April 13.
According to the General Consulate of Uzbekistan in Thailand, two Uzbek nationals contacted the consulate, explaining that they were in trouble in Myanmar and requested help to return home.
The migrants reported that they found an online job offer for a well-paid position in Thailand, and were even provided with free flight tickets to Bangkok. However, upon arriving in Thailand, they were deceitfully transferred to Myanmar, where they were forced to work in a fraudulent call center.
The victims claimed they had become victims of human trafficking, with members of the organized crime group continuously threatening them with physical harm if they refused to work. Additionally, the group demanded a large sum of money in exchange for the migrants’ return home.
Dunyo says diplomats investigating the case “discovered that eight Kyrgyz citizens and four Kazakhstani nationals were also in forced labor.”
Uzbek and Kazakh diplomats reportedly coordinated with their Kyrgyz counterparts, who did not have a diplomatic presence in Thailand or Myanmar, to help the Kyrgyz citizens as well.
As a result of joint efforts and negotiations with the “competent authorities" of Southeast Asian countries, all the stranded migrants were freed. Law enforcement handed over the migrants to the diplomats at the Mae Sot border point in Thailand, where they were provided with temporary housing and food.
On April 11, “2 nationals of Uzbekistan, four nationals of Kazakhstan and seven nationals of Kyrgyzstan were successfully repatriated to their homelands,” Dunyo noted.
The Consulate of Uzbekistan in Bangkok urged citizens to be vigilant when considering job offers abroad and to carefully verify the authenticity of the sources of such information, Dunyo concluded.
Meanwhile, Vesti.kg reports that the incident caught the attention of Kyrgyz parliament members, who, on April 14, requested the Ministry of Labor to provide detailed information on forced labor in Myanmar. During a session, the deputy head of the ministry stated that they currently did not have the information but promised to clarify the matter and provide a report to the parliamentarians soon.
"This case exemplifies the effective implementation of the principles of brotherhood, good-neighborliness, strategic partnership, and alliance between our countries, expressed practically in helping people," noted the employees of the Uzbek Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
