By: Staff Writer
Colombo (LNW): Organised groups are now operating a job scam of sending Sri Lankans fed up with the country’s economic crisis along the human trafficking pipeline to Laos as a large number of qualified and experienced youths are increasingly desperate to go abroad.
Loas is an independent republic, and the only landlocked nation in Southeast Asia, northeast of Thailand, west of Vietnam.
With the sole aim of making money and helping their families survive hyperinflation through heftier remittances, these young men and women are falling prey to the employment racket both here and in Thailand.
While one group is based in Laos, those staying in the same apartment compound are responsible for handling the Sri Lankans there. Another group is based in Sri Lanka and they approach individuals, brainwash them, prepare their travel documents and drop them at the airport.
The ongoing economic crisis in Sri Lanka has hampered job prospects fot youths and thus, when they hear about lucrative pay packets of US$1,000 a month at an IT job in Thailand, they are used to jumping at the chance.
When they realize that their job would be to flirt with well-to-do Americans online in an organised crypto-currency scamming network handled by East Asian syndicates in Laos.
The Special Investigation Division of the Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau (SLFEB) revealed these details to warn Sri Lankans about Thailand job scam requesting them not to dupe them by lucrative job offers.
Sri Lanka Mission in Thailand has raised concerns about Sri Lankan nationals being lured for employment in Thailand, particularly for positions in Information to Laos in Thailand Information Technology (IT) sector by dubious tech firms involved in call-centre scams and cryptocurrency fraud.
It has noticed recently that Sri Lankan nationals are being lured for employment in Thailand particularly for the positions in the Information Technology (IT) sector by dubious IT firms involved in call-centre scams and crypto currency fraud.
Victims are illegally taken across the border from Thailand mostly into Myanmar and held captive to work under harsh restrictive conditions. Some of the victims have also been apprehended by authorities for illegal entry.
All these victimized Sri Lankans have arrived in Thailand on tourist visas, promising to convert the same to work visas after arrival, which has not been successful.
Sri Lankan nationals are therefore advised not to get enticed and entrapped in such fraudulent job offers and are requested to exercise extreme caution and verify the background of recruiting agents as well as any company before taking up any job offer.
Sri Lankan nationals are therefore advised not to get enticed and entrapped in such fraudulent job offers and are requested to exercise extreme caution and verify the background of recruiting agents as well as any company before taking up any job offer.
The Sri Lanka Mission urged Sri Lankans to obtain Thai visa details from the Thai Immigration Bureau website via www.immigration.go.th.
