ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s foreign office said on Thursday that the country’s mission in Myanmar has contacted relevant authorities in the Southeast Asian nation to secure the release of Pakistani nationals who were allegedly detained by “criminal networks.”

Last week, the families of six Pakistani nationals allegedly taken hostage by fake job scammers in Myanmar appealed to Pakistani authorities to secure their release.

The families claim their relatives were lured by a group of alleged Chinese scammers in Thailand with the offer of lucrative jobs. Instead, they are now being forced to work up to 18 hours a day and are subjected to torture, including sleep deprivation and electric shocks, according to their family members. 

Arab News could not independently verify that the Pakistanis were scammed by Chinese nationals. However, a spokesperson at the Chinese consulate in Karachi said they were looking into the case but had found no evidence so far of the involvement of Chinese nationals in the “unsubstantiated” accusations.

“We are aware of these reports and our mission in Myanmar has approached the relevant authorities for the release of Pakistani nationals who have been illegally detained by criminal networks and to assist our mission in early recovery and early repatriation of these individuals to Pakistan,” Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch told reporters during a weekly media briefing in Islamabad.

Baloch said the foreign office would disclose further information on the matter to the media and families of the Pakistani nationals when there is an update on the case. 

“Pakistan will continue to work with countries of the region to ensure that Pakistani victims of criminal networks are released and brought back to Pakistan,” she added.

Baloch said it was important to note that transnational criminal networks and organizations operating in some parts of Southeast Asia posed a serious threat to regional security.

She noted that these groups engaged in illegal and sophisticated scamming operations to ensnare and trap individuals seeking job opportunities.

“Their modus operandi includes human trafficking, forced labor, and ensnaring victims into forced criminality and we believe that these concerns need a coordinated international response to challenges of human trafficking and transnational organized crime,” she added.

The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), a major coalition ally of the government, said on Wednesday that the party’s chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has taken notice of the alleged abduction of three Pakistani youths from Sindh province who are allegedly detained in Myanmar. 

The PPP said Bhutto-Zardari had urged relevant authorities to take measures for their recovery and ensure their return to Pakistan.