KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 261 Malaysian job scam victims stranded in Cambodia have been successfully rescued so far.
The foreign ministry (Wisma Putra), in a statement today, said 171 victims had been brought back to Malaysia while the remaining 90 were still waiting for the repatriation process.
AirAsia Flight AK535 yesterday was the latest flight to bring home 13 more victims.
The ministry and Malaysian diplomatic missions were working closely with the countries concerned to locate, rescue and bring back home safely Malaysians who are victims of such job scam syndicates.
It called upon family members to contact the ministry and the police if any of their family members fell victim to these syndicates offering employment abroad.
A special committee, chaired by foreign minister Saifuddin Abdullah, held a meeting on Tuesday to deal with this issue in a more integrated and comprehensive manner.
Nine other ministries and agencies, including the police, prime minister’s department, Attorney-General’s Chambers and other ministries attended the meeting.
They resolved to meet the heads of diplomatic missions of the countries involved for further discussions.
These heads of diplomatic missions have expressed the commitment of their governments to provide close cooperation in dealing with this issue.
The heads of Malaysian diplomatic missions in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand have also been asked to resolve this issue quickly.
Efforts to create greater awareness among the public and target groups will also be increased so that they are not easily deceived by these syndicates.