KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob has given his assurance that Malaysians victim of job scam syndicates abroad will be rescued.
"The government is committed to assist and resolve issues affecting Malaysians stranded abroad due to job scams, as raised by the Malaysian Community Crime Care (MCCC) and the Malaysian International Humanitarian Organisation (MHO).
"I would like to stress that the government is extremely concerned, and views seriously the fate of Malaysians who are stranded in several countries, such as Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia," he said in a statement today.
Ismail Sabri also advised the public to be careful of job offers in other countries.
He said people should verify job offers through the Foreign Ministry to avoid them from being scammed by these syndicates.
Ismail Sabri had earlier attended a meeting with Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Special Functions) Datuk Dr Abdul Latiff Ahmad, MCCC president Tan Sri Musa Hassan, MHO secretary-general Datuk Hishamuddin Hashim as well as families of victims.
Earlier today, Latiff was quoted by Bernama as saying that a special committee at the Asean level would be among the approaches to be discussed by the cabinet at its meeting tomorrow to resolve the issue of Malaysians falling victim to job scams abroad.
"This issue requires the cooperation of all parties and it will be discussed (at the cabinet meeting) tomorrow," he said.
It was reported that a group of NGOs sent a memorandum to the prime minister to request the government's assistance and intervention in resolving the job scam issue.
According to Wisma Putra, 158 cases have been reported as of yesterday.
Of the total, 43 victims in Cambodia have been rescued.