IPOH – A man with learning disabilities who wants to be known as Ah Choong, 22, has been stranded in Myanmar since December after being lured there by an employment syndicate on social media which promised a lucrative salary.
The victim’s uncle, who wanted to be known as Ah Lee, 48, said he became aware of the incident after receiving notifications of anonymous transactions of up to 55 times on his phone amounting to RM90,104 into Choong’s bank account within two days of suspected misuse by a fraud syndicate on April 27.
“Since mid-March, we noted the disappearance of Ah Choong from Ipoh and his girlfriend who lives in Kedah, until I managed to contact him last week when he asked for compensation to pave his return to Malaysia,” he said at a press conference which also heard woeful tales from the families of other trafficked victims at the Perak MCA building here today.
According to him, he had held on to the passport belonging to his nephew for safekeeping from misuse, but the company’s agent lodged a police report on the loss of the victim’s passport to replace it with a new one and packed him off to Myanmar.
“Choong said his bank card was confiscated and that he was beaten before being forced onto a flight to the country to work for a fee of US$7,000 per month, but was later told he would be transferred to another company because his job in customer service was not satisfactory, adding that his phone was withheld until after work,” he said.
He said following that, he lodged a report at the Pasir Puteh police station here last Wednesday so that the victim could be rescued by the authorities.
Also, another human trafficking victim, known only as Ah Meng, 32, who was contacted via Facebook said he had been stranded in Cambodia for the past five months after being lured there with a casino job but was instead hired as an online scammer.
“I was confined with seven Chinese (victims) and one Thai in one room. I felt very scared because I did not have US$13,000 as compensation to return home,” he said when contacted by his father from MCA Perak via a Facebook video call.
Meanwhile, another victim’s mother, known as Madam Lee, 60, related the fate of her eldest son of three siblings who went missing since last February as a victim of human trafficking in Bangkok, and pleaded for his rescue and immediate repatriation from Thailand.
“Previously, my son worked in Kuala Lumpur as a waiter and often sent money to me here, but now I can only contact him through the Messenger application on Facebook, which is controlled by the syndicate,” she said, adding that a police report was lodged in Pekan Baru police station here on March 29.
Meanwhile, Perak MCA Public Service and Complaints Bureau chief Low Guo Nan said the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) should treat this issue very seriously due to the prevalence of fraudulent job offers.
“MCMC needs to filter out and delete the posting of such job advertisements on social media to reduce recurrence of human trafficking which is trapping more victims. I believe these human trafficking cases are masterminded by a local syndicate,” he added.
Perak police chief Datuk Mior Faridalathrash Wahid when contacted by Bernama said police are reviewing the reports made by the victim’s families for further action. – Bernama, May 9, 2022
