India, March 12 -- India has brought back 549 of its citizens who were freed from cyber crime centres located along the Myanmar-Thailand border in two flights operated by military aircraft, the external affairs ministry said on Wednesday.

The Indian nationals, from states such as Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, had all been lured to either Thailand or Myanmar with false promises of jobs in the IT sector. They were then trafficked to cyber crime centres, mostly run by Chinese criminal gangs, in lawless border regions of Myanmar that aren't controlled by the military junta.

Most of the Indians were freed, along with citizens of other South and Southeast Asian countries, during a recent crackdown ...