Cambodia's Cyber Slave Camps: The Story of the Keralites Who Escaped
In March, the media reported that 5000 Indians were forced into cyber slavery in Cambodia.
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In January, 23-year-old Abhi N (name changed), an Indian, was forced into a horrifying reality: scamming his own countrymen from a Cambodian cyber slave camp. A flicker of defiance emerged when he tried to warn a potential victim about the fraud. But his act of conscience was met with brutal punishment. Camp masters beat him savagely with an iron rod.
“The first blow sent me crashing to the floor. Pain exploded in my back as they rained down hit after hit with that iron rod. I screamed but it was a raw, desperate sound that died unheard. A kick slammed into my gut, the air whooshing out of me. Finally, spent, they left me there. My friends, faces etched with fear, dragged me back to the room. Orders barked: no bed. For 15 days, I was forced to sleep sitting up, the floor my only companion. One meagre meal a day was all they deemed me worthy of. All this, for a single act of defiance – warning a stranger they were being scammed,” Abhi said in an exclusive interview with The Quint.
Abhi, like many other Keralites driven abroad by Kerala's high unemployment rate, found himself in Cambodia. Lured by false promises, he'd paid a hefty fee to fraudulent recruitment agents back home.
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