Sisters lured to Singapore await rescue in Yangon
Source: The Sangai Express

Lamka, July 15 2014: In an appa-rent case of human trafficking, two minor sisters who were duped by a man believed to be hailing from Tamu township in Myanmar with the promise of giving them domestic helpers' job in Singapore have made a distress call from Yangoon, pleading their parents to take them home.

The events which reportedly unfolded sometime in June second week was exposed as the girls' father Lal- chungnung approached Mani-pur Alliance for Child Rights (MACR), Churachandpur chapter to help him rescue his children.

MACR convenor Rev Nicky Thanga said that the girls have been pleading their parents to pay Rs 20,000 which the fraud had allegedly taken from Yangoon agents and take them home.

Identifying the fraud as Kapa, Nicky said that the whole conspiracy seems to have its root at Tamu town where the trafficker met a married woman identified as Feli sometime in May and claimed that he could take girls to Singapore for domestic jobs with attractive pays.

Human Trafficking : Sisters lured to Singapore

Kapa along with an accomplice identified as Manga landed in the victims' locality Rengkai in June.

Through Feli they managed to convince the elder of the siblings � reading in classes V and VI, and eventually the young-er sibling and their parents.

Taking Feli's words that the girls would be taught several languages on reaching Yangon; that Kapa would bear all the expenses for their travel to Singapore from Yangoon; and that they would be given the job of domestic helpers in Singapore with a monthly salary of Rs.30,000, the girls left home along with the man who turned out to be a fraud on mid-June, said Nicky.

He added that the girls called their parents from Tamu and informed them that things didn't work out the way it was promised and their guide had taken all their money.

They were taken to Yangoon from Tamu after three nights and there the fraud seems to have cheated the girls and left them at the mercy of the agents.

The girls again call up their parents from Yangoon, this time pleading them to send Rs.20,000 meant for the agents and money for their return journeys.

As the poor parents could not afford to send the required cash, they began frantic efforts to help their children and seek help from people they know.

In the process one B Muan Ngaihte from Phailian has manage to contact his acquaintance in Yangoon who after several efforts located them and met the girls.

Nicky has even shown a photo, of the people who met them along with the girls.

When contacted B Muan said his contacts in Yangoon had located the agents the girls are staying with and confirmed that cash needs to be paid to secure their release.

Besides the agents have told the visitors that the girls have to wait for one year or so before they could send them to Singapore as against the promise made by the fraudster who cheated them.

Meanwhile Kapa's accomplice Manga has reportedly manage to tie a nuptial with the widow of a postman on July 2 and the newly married couple had left for Tamu in Myanmar on July 7, barely five days after their nuptial.

One of the widow's daughters had reportedly told Rev Nicky that their step-father has been insistent that they move to Singapore since day one and their mother have moved along with him for Singapore.

Claiming that 'we' are in a very burning situation in many case due to ignorance of parents, Rev Nicky said there are many similar other cases where girls are taken for a ride and that it is just a matter of time that their parents will push the distress button.