Visa fraud trap: 19 Keralites, one Tamil Nadu native jailed in Cambodia

ATTINGAL: Twenty individuals, including 19 from Kerala and one from Tamil Nadu, have been imprisoned in Cambodia after falling victim to a fraudulent job recruitment agency. The group, which includes five natives of Anjuthengu in Thiruvananthapuram district, was detained by Cambodian security forces during a raid.

The Anjuthengu residents currently in custody have been identified as Vijin (27), his wife Ancy (22), his brother Antony (24), as well as Arun (26) and Aman Jerome (27). The remaining members of the group hail from various districts, including Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Kozhikode, and Wayanad.

According to reports, the individuals were initially taken to a shelter after a security inspection found they lacked the necessary documentation. They were subsequently transferred to a provincial prison in Cambodia. During the operation, authorities confiscated their passports, mobile phones, and other personal documents.

The families of the Anjuthengu natives learned of the arrests after receiving communications from some of the detainees, who managed to reach out using alternate mobile devices.

This is not the first instance of residents from the region being targeted by such rackets. In a previous case, five Anjuthengu natives were stranded in Cambodia after paying 2.5 lakh rupees each for non-existent supermarket jobs. That group was eventually repatriated following the intervention of then-Union External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and then-Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muraleedharan.