SEPANG - The Cambodian authorities have requested that any information about Malaysians who have fallen victim to job scam syndicates in the country be only channelled to the Malaysian Embassy there or the Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM), to facilitate rescue work.
Bukit Aman Criminal Investigation Department director Datuk Seri Abd Jalil Hassan said any information channelled by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to the Cambodian authorities will not be entertained from today, as it was feared to interfere with rescue efforts.
He said the agreement was reached following discussions between the Cambodian authorities and a delegation from the PDRM and Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Cambodia led by him.
"Through discussions with the Cambodian authorities, it was found that the information channelled by the NGO had interfered with the rescue process because the victims had been taken into hiding by the syndicate," he said during a press conference with five rescued victims at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, here, today.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Protocol and Consular chief Mohd Aini Atan was also present.
Meanwhile, Abd Jalil said the discussions with the Cambodian authorities also found that some of the claims by NGOs here about the condition of the victims were unfounded.
"The video of syndicate victims being abused and forced to eat pork does not involve Malaysians, the video was deliberately spread by the syndicate members to scare the victims' relatives into paying money to free their children or family members," he said.
In addition, he said that not all individuals who were rescued and brought back to Malaysia were victims of syndicates, because there were cases of individuals deliberately claiming to be victims to run away from debts due to gambling, and some even returned to work in Cambodia after being rescued.
Abd Jalil advised NGOs to be more careful when issuing statements regarding the issue to avoid straining the relationship between the two countries.
Meanwhile, Abd Jalil said that as of yesterday, PDRM had received a total of 262 police reports involving 330 victims of the job scam syndicate stranded abroad, with 218 of them rescued, and efforts were underway to bring the rest back home. - BERNAMA