Thaindian News

Panaji, March 11 (IANS) The Goa government is creating a database of rogue travel and recruitment agents who cheat job seekers by sending them abroad on fake documents and charging them huge amounts, an official said Friday.

State commissioner for Non-Resident Indian (NRI) affairs Eduardo Faleiro said his commission was forced to take the step in view of the inefficient police action against such agents.

“The commission is creating this blacklist of agents and job recruiters because in 184 such criminal cases, only 17 convictions have been made,” Faleiro, a former union minister, told reporters.

“One of the main reasons for the low rate of conviction is incomplete and careless police investigation. A committee will be constituted for protection of emigrants and for dealing with unscrupulous recruiting agents,” Faleiro said, adding that the committee would include senior government and police officials.

Faleiro said the committee would gather intelligence and “create a database of such fraudulent travel agents, recruiting agents and intermediaries who indulge in irregular migration”.

“We will also be launching a campaign to sensitise the public about the risk of irregular migration. The list of rogue blacklisted agents will be made available to the public so that they do not fall prey to such rackets,” Faleiro said.

According to data available with the Goa NRI cell, the state ranks second only to Kerala in job-related migration to Arabic-speaking Gulf countries.

Several hundred recruitment agents double up as job scouts for recruitment agencies abroad - often fake - and charge lakhs of rupees from aspirants in return for job placements in the Gulf region and in parts of Europe.