KUCHING: Opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP) estimates that more than 100 Sarawakians are still waiting to be rescued from abroad after falling victim to job scams.
But in a press conference here Tuesday the party called on the families of these victims to leave their predicament in the hands of the law and not to act on their own.
Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii’s special assistant George Lam cautioned them against trusting anyone for their release including sending money to the purported employer or agent.
“Let the authorities assist in searching for the victims in another country and arrange to bring them back to Malaysia,” he said, adding they could also approach the party for help.
According to Lam the party has already helped about 30 Sarawakian victims of such scams.
He called on the Ministry of Home Affairs and the police to investigate and locate Malaysian individuals involved in these scams and human trafficking.
“To the government of Sarawak, I call on them to work hard to provide a better salary scheme to local Sarawakians to ensure locals are able to get better salaries and don’t need to risk themselves working abroad,” he added.
The press conference was called in relation to job scams involving two men, aged 43 and 22, from Kuching.
The 43-year-old known as Jong was duped into a lucrative job offer of RM8,000 in Thailand by a Malaysian but was later smuggled through illegal routes to Myanmar to work as an online scammer.
As for the 22-years-old, identified as Alvin, he fell for a similar scam but was instead brought to KK Garden in Myanmar and was forced to do similar work.
Unlike Jong who was rescued and returned to Kuala Lumpur on Dec 1, Alvin who is still held captive secretly contacted Lam through WhatsApp.
Lam has brought Alvin’s father to lodge a report at the Sekama police station and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
