27 Vizag youths trafficked to Cambodia return home: AP police

Visakhapatnam: As many as 27 youngsters from Visakhapatnam and its vicinity who were trafficked to Cambodia reached here on Friday, said a top police official.

Visakhapatnam Joint Commissioner of Police Fakkeerappa Kaginelli said a batch of 10 returnees arrived at the port city's airport at 5.30 pm and another batch of 15 were set to reach here later in the day.

"Two more returnees made their own arrangements to come via Singapore," Kaginelli told PTI, adding that 27 out of 58 rescued persons belonged to the southern state.

According to the top police official, things started moving in a positive direction after the city police broke the news of human trafficking on May 18.

The police arrested three persons on human trafficking charges for luring over 150 youth from the city and its vicinity promising jobs in the Southeast Asian country. But in reality, they were trafficked to be sold over to Chinese operators in Cambodia where they were tortured and confined to work in dark rooms to carry out cyber crime and ponzi schemes.

Kanginelli noted that the trafficked youth 'revolted' against their handlers in Cambodia and this led to arrest of over 300 Indians by the local authorities there.

They (youth) "revolted" at Jinbei and Compound, Sihanoukvile, Cambodia, which is allegedly a hub for cyber crime. This act worked in their favour and set several key Indian government departments into motion to work for their release, including the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

Kaginelli said the MEA opened a control room, set up helplines and also assigned special officers to pursue through diplomatic channels for the release of the trafficked youth.

Nine more families contacted the city police to repatriate their children, he said, and added that nearly 100 more trapped persons have to be contacted, identified and repatriated to Vizag.