Public help sought to nab rogue job agents

Rasika Somarathna

The Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) yesterday appealed for public help to identify rogue foreign employment agents. This appeal comes in the wake of a number of illegal activities being bared recently.

The Daily News also learns that the growing number of such frauds involving foreign employment had been brought to the notice of President Mahinda Rajapaksa and, he has directed the SLBFE Chairman to take stern action to arrest the trend.

According to the SLBFE, the number of fraudsters who earn vast sums of money at the expense of employment seekers who are on the look out for greener pastures abroad, are on the increase.

The SLBFE has taken to task more than 400 such rogue agents for engaging in illegal activities this year, sources said.

SLBFE Chairman Kingsley Ranawaka said in a bid to curb this growing meance, they have introduced a reward scheme, in addition to a 24 hour hotline to attract maximum support from the public.

He also added that the SLBFE sleuths have launched islandwide raids to nab offenders. That had resulted in tracking down four bogus job agents in Bibile, Moneragala, Kurunegala and Maradana over the past weekend.

The racket of these rogue agents who operated without a license were crackeddown by sleuths and a number of forged documents and passports have been recovered, Ranawaka added. The multi- million rupee scandal involving a millionaire businessman in Kurunegala who had posed as an overseas educational consultant was also reported in the Daily News.

A few weeks ago, an organised gang had forged the SLBFE trademark and the signature of its Deputy General Manager to swindle over Rs.20 million from Korean job prospects.

According to the Chairman, the SLBFE has initiated legal action against offenders. New laws have been introduced and the act would be amended to eliminate loopholes in the law.

Awareness programmes have also been launched to educate the masses with more branches in outstations. Every Police Division has been equipped with a separate unit to handle complaints related to migrant labour, Ranawaka added. Already more than 1.6 million Sri Lankans are working abroad and their present contribution to the country’s coffers stand at 35 per cent.