Mumbai: Two who bought their way to freedom

Just the mention of Thailand sends a chill down the spine of Shehzad Tamboli and Saud Niyazi The two consider themselves lucky to have returned from the ldquolabour campsrdquo set up by Chinese fraudsters along the ThailandMyanmar border though it cost them about Rs 5 lakh each Hundreds of Indians who are trapped there after accepting ldquolucrativerdquo job offers bear daily torture as they canrsquot pay for their release they told midday sharing their experience in a company named DevilAbout a week ago Dongri residents Tamboli 29 and Niyazi 28 returned to Mumbai but they still canrsquot get over the trauma they had been through in what they thought would be their dream jobs During their 22day stay the two said they didnrsquot suffer any abuse as they agreed to pay for their release on the Day 1Shehzad Tamboli Dongri residentTamboli said their colleagues who belong to poor families were subjected to mindnumbing brutalities ldquoThey have various methods of torturing employees For every single mistake either there is a punishment or compulsory fine It could be a professional mistake or lack of commitment or behaviour related Most punishments stretch to four days A friend from Haryana was kept in a water jail with his hand tied above for four days When he was released he could barely walk He had verbally abused a security guy after getting drunkrdquo said TamboliHe listed more barbaric methods that are used ldquoThey fitted metal caps to the knees of a Tamil Nadu man and gave him electric shocks while one man from Hyderabad was viciously beaten by an army guyrdquoAlso Read Myanmar slave trade Job racket victims send SOS from Thai borderCouldnrsquot eat lost weightTamboli and Niyazi said they were illegally taken to K K Enterprises an industrial park at Marvel Khat Myanmar that is hugged by a river On the other side is Thailand ldquoWe could barely eat the food In nonveg they gave us Chinese with pork and some soup that we couldnrsquot eat In veg we got a tomato a cucumber a spinach leaf boiled potato coke and sometimes rice I lost 1617 kgrdquo said Niyazi Tamboli was lighter by 12 kg A map of the industrial park in Marvel Khat Myanmar shared by victim Shehzad TamboliJournalistic skills helpTamboli who has a masterrsquos degree in journalism and had worked for a newspaper made use of his experience to mark the locations in the photographs that he took ldquoNo one was allowed to carry phones and we had to go through a metal detector to enter the workplace I would hide a mobile in my underwear and since I wore a tight metal ring they didnrsquot suspect when the metal detector beeped I clicked a few photographs through Snapchat with GPS location markings Though they formatted my phone while leaving I still retrieved them from the app The photos will prove that we were illegally taken to Myanmarrdquo said TamboliHow it all startedIn August Tamboli got a job offer on Facebook from a local named Yaseer who is in Dubai After he rejected the offer it again came to him through Umar Chiruvattam who runs a placement agency Since Taboli and Niyaz knew Chiruvattam they took it up hoping they would be able to support their families It was a digital marketing and data entry job in Thailand and offered a monthly salary of 10001200 which is close to Rs 1 lakhNiyazi said his parents are no more He lives with his grandmother elder brother his wife and their two kids along with his younger sister His brother works as a delivery boy Chiruvattam has now been arrestedIllegal border crossingThe two said they were told all arrangements would be done by their employer They left for Thailand on August 24 and landed in Bangkok the same day A man named Feng asked them to send their selfies Soon a man met them at the airport and handed them 2200 Thai Baht about Rs 4700 He completed their visarelated paperwork and asked a taxi driver to drop them off at the Zircon hotel in North Bangkok At every step their photographs were taken said the twoThe next day at 630 am a Fortuner drove them for 7 hours during which they crossed at least three immigration posts The car took them to Hop Inn hotel at Mae Sot city where they were told to board a pickup truck After a short ride they reached a village and were made to cross the Moei river on a boat The two later found that they had illegally crossed over to Myanmar A car then dropped them at the gate of K K EnterprisesAt the company the two said everyone was given a unique identity Tambolirsquos name was Martin while Niyazi was given the name Mac ldquoWe were lodged in building number H24 where they took away our passports Thatrsquos when we started to think something was amiss Around 8 pm they were taken to building number D5 where they met floor leader John who explained to them the workldquoJohn asked us to create fake identities and target senior citizens from the US Canada and European countries We were told these people get huge amounts after retirement We were told to dupe them by coaxing them to invest in cryptocurrency from 1000 to 1 million We immediately realised it was a scam and we resigned on the spotrdquo said Tamboli About 200 Indians are stuck in the K K Enterprises park while the total number of Indians in the other fraud factories could be 20002500 said the two ldquoMany Indians came from Gulf countries after seeing the lucrative job offers Citizens from other countries mostly from Africa and Asia are also stranded thererdquo said TamboliKinrsquos scramble for moneyOn August 29 Tamboli said they were each handed a bill of about 18 lakh Thai baht then equivalent to Rs 39 lakh which included the expenses on their travel stay and food ldquoThey said we wonrsquot be allowed to leave unless we pay the amountrdquoOnce they learnt about their ordeal the families of the two men in Mumbai began a mad scramble for money They emptied their bank accounts pawned jewellery and borrowed money from friends and relatives By September 7 Tamboli and Niyazi could settle their bills which was done in USDT a type of cryptocurrency Their boss then wrote on their papers ldquoreleasedrdquoldquoWhen I resigned they told me to bring in three more Indians and they would let me go for free I refused to do that as it was like passing the same ordeal to three others and their families in exchange for my freedomrdquo said TamboliReleased and more woesOn September 15 the two got back their passports ldquoThey took our cellphones and returned the devices after formatting them and taking away the SIM cards The next day an armed man in army uniform dropped us in Myawaddy where more such labour camps operate They were then taken to Thailand after crossing the same river ldquoWe boarded a pickup truck that dropped us three kilometres away from Mae Sot international airport We tried to check into a hotel but were denied as our visas had expiredrdquoArrested by Thai policeThe two boarded a bus to the airport where immigration authorities found their visas expired and handed them over to the Royal Thai police ldquoWe spent a night in the lockup The next day a local court fined us 2000 Baht The day later we were sent to the Immigration Detention Centre and then an isolation facilityrdquo On September 22 they were brought back to the detention centre where they spent five nightsAgents and embassyldquoWe were in touch with the Indian embassy in Thailand and were told that the process generally takes a month Inside the centre we met an agent who took R40000 per person and arranged everything including our tickets On September 27 a police vehicle brought us to the Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok We reached Mumbai around 7 pmrdquo said TamboliNow Tamboli is guiding other victims of the scam to reach India as soon as possible as things get complicated if one is caught by the immigration police ldquoIf one managed to reach the airport they can directly board the flight to India after paying a fine for overstay which is usually of 12000 Bahtrdquo22No of days the two spent in a Myanmar slave campRs 5LAmount each youth spent for their releaseAug 24When the two reached BangkokRs 1 lakhMonthly pay offered to the duo