NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India said it had uncovered a “major human trafficking network” that lured young Indians to Russia with the promise of jobs with the sole aim of forcing them to fight in the within the Russian army in Ukraine.
About 35 men have left for Russia in connection with this trafficking so far, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said Thursday evening, more than an initial estimate provided earlier by the Indian Ministry of Affairs foreign.
At least two of the men were killed in combat, their families said. The Indian Embassy in Russia confirmed one of the deaths.
The organizers of the network recruited their victims through social networks and agents in several Indian states, detailed the CBI in a press release.
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Among the means used to lure them were offers of admission to “dubious private universities” in Russia, as well as “discounted free visa extensions”.
“The Indian nationals who were victims of this trafficking were trained for combat and deployed against their will on the front in the Russian-Ukrainian war zone”, underlined the CBI, specifying that in addition to the deaths, several of them were “seriously injured”.
Several people suspected of belonging to the trafficking network were arrested and searches carried out in particular in New Delhi and Mumbai led to the seizure of documents and 50 million rupees (around 550,000 euros) in cash, investigators said.
Several videos have circulated on social networks this month to denounce this traffic. In one of them, seven Indians appealed to their government for help, explaining that they had traveled to Russia on a tourist visa and had been forcibly conscripted into the Russian army and sent to the front.
India’s foreign ministry said it had raised the issue “firmly” with Moscow.
The Russian Foreign Ministry did not respond to requests from Reuters.
(Reporting by Sakshi Dayal and Krishn Kaushik, French version Tangi Salaün, editing by Sophie Louet)
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