Addressing two overlapping and rapidly evolving forms of trafficking — international labour trafficking through fraudulent overseas recruitment, and trafficking for forced criminality in cyber-scam compounds — both of which disproportionately affect workers from India's high-migration source states.
Workers from India — particularly from Haryana, Punjab, Bihar, and Jharkhand — are recruited through fraudulent job offers for construction, manufacturing, IT, and hospitality work in the Gulf, Southeast Asia, and beyond. Legitimate-seeming agencies, social media advertisements, and community-based recruiters deceive workers about wages, conditions, and the nature of the work. Upon arrival, workers find their documents confiscated, their freedom of movement restricted, and their ability to return home made financially or physically impossible.
A rapidly growing and severely under-documented form of trafficking: workers are recruited — again through fraudulent job offers — and trafficked into cyber-scam compounds, primarily in Southeast Asia (Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, and the Philippines), where they are compelled under threat of violence to operate online fraud operations targeting victims in India and globally. This form of trafficking is explicitly recognised by the UNODC as a distinct and growing exploitation type, and is the focus of the UN's World Day Against Trafficking in Persons 2026 theme.
Why these two forms are treated together: Both share the same foundational recruitment mechanism — deception through a false promise of legitimate work. The distinction lies in what workers are trafficked for: coerced labour in one case, coerced criminal activity in the other. Effective prevention, identification, and survivor support must address both, and the same source communities face risk from both types simultaneously.
Community-level campaigns in source states that help workers and families recognise fraudulent recruitment — including how to verify overseas job offers, what warning signs look like, and where to report suspicious recruiters.
Building the capacity of frontline workers, police, and consular officials to correctly identify trafficking survivors — including those returning from scam compounds, who are often treated as criminals rather than victims.
Supporting survivors' return — addressing the national policy gap for overseas trafficking returnees, debt burden, psychosocial trauma, legal aid needs, and sustainable livelihood restoration in source communities.
Engaging with the Ministry of External Affairs, eMigrate system regulators, state labour departments, and international bodies (IOM, UNODC) to strengthen pre-departure safeguards, bilateral agreements, and survivor protections.
Generating primary evidence on recruitment routes, trafficker methods, survivor profiles, and gaps in the legal and policy response — including corridor-specific studies covering Haryana, Punjab, Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam, and West Bengal.
Training for frontline NGO workers, police, prosecutors, and social workers on the psychology of trafficking, trafficker tactics, trauma-informed survivor support, and the legal framework under the IPC, ITPA, and emerging legislation.
Primary source for international labour trafficking and trafficking for forced criminality via fraudulent overseas job offers. Workers from these states have been documented in scam compounds across Southeast Asia.
High-volume source states for labour trafficking internationally, and for child and youth trafficking into domestic servitude via illegal placement agencies in Delhi-NCR. Jharkhand's Khunti and Ranchi districts are particularly documented.
Source states for bride trafficking, sex trafficking, and domestic servitude, with a cross-border dimension involving Bangladesh. The deception-then-confinement recruitment mechanism mirrors trafficking-for-forced-criminality patterns.
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