Deputy foreign minister Mohamad Alamin said that according to the ministry’s data, authorities have rescued 518 victims and are tracing 186 others.

In addition, 500 victims have been brought back to the country, he said.

Mohamad said the 704 victims are officially registered with the foreign ministry.

“There are many news reports that mention figures that are as high as 2,000 victims. This could be (the victims) that are yet to be registered with and yet to be officially tracked by us (ministry),” he said.

“Therefore, we would like to seek cooperation from all parties with information to share it with us so we can work with the task force to trace and then bring the victims back to the country.”

A multi-agency task force that deals with job scam victims was formed last year. It is chaired by the foreign ministry and has the home ministry and the police as its members.

Mohamad was responding to supplementary questions from Oscar Ling (PH-Sibu) and Sabri Azit (PN-Jerai) about the number of job scam victims that have been saved.

Three days ago, Berita Harian quoted the Malaysia International Humanitarian Organisation (MHO) as saying that close to 2,000 Malaysians believed to be job scam victims have been stuck in neighbouring countries since last year.

From that figure, 1,200 are believed to be held in several districts in Myanmar, while hundreds more are in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and the Philippines.

Mohamad also said the government is waiting for approval from local authorities so Malaysian authorities can visit the countries and hold discussions with their counterparts.

He said this is an ongoing effort which the government does not want to publicise as it will disrupt ongoing investigations.