India has exposed a large-scale network of slave traffickers supplying people to Russia for forced service and participation in the war against Ukraine.

Indian Express reported on this.

The Indian Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) uncovered a human trafficking network that supplied people to fight in the war in Ukraine on the side of Russia during searches conducted in seven cities.

According to the investigation, a group of people, including three Russian nationals, recruited Indians on the pretext of getting admission to private universities in Russia.

However, after reaching Russia, the passports of these Indians were taken by the agents in Russia, and they were forced to fight the Russian side against their will.

“It has been learnt that on reaching Russia, passports of these Indian nationals were taken/snatched by agents in Russia. They were being trained in combat roles and provided with Russian army uniform and batches. Later, these Indian nationals are/were being deployed at front bases in the Russia-Ukraine war zone against their wishes and put their lives in grave danger,” the FIR states.

The CBI has also found that one of the agencies based in Delhi allegedly sent around 180 people to Russia, mostly on student visas.

The CBI has claimed that it has been ascertained that some human trafficking victims were also grievously injured in the war zone. A day earlier, it became known that one of the recruited Indian citizens had been killed.

India’s intelligence agencies are currently investigating the involvement of Russian embassy staff in human trafficking in India.

Work in Russia

A week earlier, another case of fraudulent recruitment of Indians into the Russian Armed Forces was reported. Indian citizens were lured through a number of agencies and social media to work in state institutions in Russia, promising high salaries.

“They were deceived. The agency employee who hired them said they would only work in Moscow. Instead, they received 15 days of training and were sent to Ukraine, where they were forced to fight,” Mohammed Imran, the brother of one of the victims, told The Indian Express.

The deceived Indians were promised a salary of 45,000 rupees per month ($540) for the first three months, which would gradually increase to 1.5 lakh rupees ($1,800). After working for a year, they were allegedly entitled to a Russian passport and citizenship.

It is also known that some citizens were charged a subscription fee of 1.5 lakh rupees as a commission by the “agency”.