Hyderabad: Dozens of fake overseas manpower consultancies are active in the city, aiming to loot gullible people who are desperate to go abroad to seek a livelihood. Official sources say that over 48 overseas manpower/job consultancies based in Hyderabad have been blacklisted by the Protector of Emigrants. Hundreds of youngsters have fallen prey to the phoney promises of these agencies and have lost lakhs of rupees.
These agencies convince their victims that their head offices, located in other cities, have PoE certificates. They then take money to process the visa and for medical tests. The money is often taken in instalments, says Task Force inspector L. Raja Venkat Reddy, and some entirely fake progress in the application is shown. Once the victim has paid a large enough amount, the ‘agent’ and the company disappear and the visa, of course, never arrives.
“Another trick is to pay a small amount back and settle it. A vexed victim, who has waited for months, will be satisfied when he gets at least a small amount back,” said an officer. The crooks manage to evade enforcement agencies even when their consultancies are blacklisted by the Protectorate of Emigrants or the ministry of external affairs overseas employment division.
“Once they come to know that they have been blacklisted by the POE or MEA’s overseas employment division, they change the firm’s name and relocate. Most fake agents never open a permanent office and do not have a permanent name for their consultancies,” said a senior official with the Commission-er’s Task Force.
Skilled youth land up in labour jobs:
While majority of the victims are never given visa and their refunds face inordinate delay, a few victims are sent to West Asia for entirely different jobs than they sought. Victims who had applied for skilled jobs are sent to labour camps or for unskilled work. One of the victims, BCom graduate Abid Khan, was promised a job as an accountant by an overseas consultancy at a private firm in Riyadh.
“They took Rs 60,000 and promised a good job with a good pay. When I landed in Riyadh, they took me to a labour supply company, where I had to stay for 20 days without proper accommodation and food,” he said. After that, he managed to reach the company where he was promised a job. “I realised I was given a labourer visa and not professionnal visa. I was made to clean floors and was asked wash toilets for many months. I stayed back only to earn back the money I had spent to get the visa,” Mr Khan said. Police say that many victims including several women have the same experience Khan had gone through.
“The agent would promise high salaries and a comfortable job. When the candidates reach there, they would realise that they have stepped into the worst job ever. Many starve and many struggle to even get a proper accommodation,” said a senior police official from Task Force.
