By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, May 3: Sixteen Sarawakians are among the 43 Malaysians rescued from a job scam syndicate in Lima, Peru.
According to a news report by Television Sarawak (TVS) today, out of the 43 victims, 26 were women, and 17 were men.
The Foreign Ministry’s Sarawak regional office director, Fenny Nuli, disclosed during a special TVS Dialogue interview yesterday (May 2) that the 43 victims were assigned various tasks during their confinement.
“The 43 Malaysians who were rescued were known to be in Lima, Peru, at the time when two of the victims climbed the wall to save themselves,” she said,
She retold one of the victim’s narratives, describing the confinement of the 43 victims in a bungalow with closed windows, which made them unable to discern day from night, while the two victims that managed to escape sought refuge at a neighbour’s house.
“But it is difficult for Peruvians to speak English, so the victim communicated with them using a translation application. Immediately after that, the police came, and I was informed of this matter,” Fenny added.
She elaborated that the syndicate forced the victims to make calls to Malaysians at night to carry out more scams.
“When the raid took place, the Peruvian police were also confused because they had never faced a case like this.
“I explained to them (Peruvian police) what happened while working closely with the public prosecutor and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to classify them (victims) as victims; otherwise, if they are classified as criminals, they will end up imprisoned in Peru,” Fenny explained.
In October last year, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs made the statement that the police of the Republic of Peru had conducted a raid at a house in La Molina, where all 43 Malaysian victims were identified and rescued.
The people who were believed to be the victims of the syndicate in Peru were later investigated with taken by the Bukit Aman Anti-Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling (Atipsom) of the Criminal Investigation Department. — DayakDaily
