Jakarta. Indonesia will question hundreds of its recently repatriated citizens to find out whether they were victims of the massive online scam operations in Myanmar, according to a senior minister.

As many as 400 Indonesians are expected to arrive in the country on Tuesday after being rescued from Myanmar's online scam centers. Another batch of around 154 people will arrive in Indonesia on Wednesday. These Indonesians previously were tricked into working as online scammers in Myanmar's lawless border area of Myawaddy after being promised high-paying jobs. As hundreds safely landed in Jakarta, Indonesia wants to ensure these people are all truly innocent or if some people involved in the criminal gangs had snuck in.

"Such assessments aim to identify whether or not they are all victims ... or if there are signs that indicate someone is actually a perpetrator. So we can know the victims who deserve the government's legal support," Chief Security Affairs Minister Budi Gunawan told reporters at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Banten.

The repatriated Indonesians will stay at the hajj dormitory in Jakarta's Pondok Gede over the next three days. Budi said they would get logistic aid, healthcare services, and psychosocial support. This way, the victims can physically and mentally recover from the trauma before finally returning to their hometown. Some of these people got beaten, electrocuted, and threatened to have their organs removed if they failed to meet the targets that the scam syndicates had set. It will also be during this time that the police's criminal unit questions everyone brought home from Myanmar.

"We will continue to track down the perpetrators behind this human trafficking. ... These assessments will help give us a better picture of the modus operandi and the perpetrators. ... It is indeed possible that not everyone [whom we have rescued] is a victim. Perhaps there are the perpetrators, including those who have been involved [in this crime] for long," Budi said.

This is not the first time Indonesians have been lured into working in Myawaddy as online scammers. Indonesia repatriated 92 people from such operations last year. As many as 174 people got repatriated in the first two months of 2025, the Foreign Affairs Ministry reported.

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