SEPANG: A total of 35 Malaysians who were victims of a job scam syndicate and trapped in Cambodia, were rescued by the authorities and flown home today.
Foreign Ministry chief of protocol and consular affairs Mohd Aini Atan said all of them arrived safely on two flights, with 28 victims including a woman landing at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) at 2pm today.
The second group of seven men arrived on another flight at KLIA 2 at 5.35pm.
“A total of 324 people have been rescued in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar since April until now, out of 459 cases reported to us.
“Of these, 304 victims have arrived safely in Malaysia while the rest are still being held at the corresponding country’s detention depot, namely 14 in Laos, two in Myanmar and four in Thailand (before repatriation),” he said in a press conference at KLIA today.
Mohd Aini said the success of repatriating Malaysians who were victims of job fraud abroad was the result of close cooperation between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and relevant agencies such as the Royal Malaysia Police, Immigration Department, Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd and others like diplomatic missions.
“We are also working with the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia to have a comprehensive communication plan to deal with this problem (rescuing Malaysians abroad),” he said, advising the public not to be deceived by job offers that were ‘too good to be true’. – BERNAMA
