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Over 80 rogue job agents nabbed in last four months

With the latest detection of two bogus foreign employment recruiting agents in Ja-Ela, authorities said they had nabbed over 80 such rogue agents during the past four months, who had swindled millions of rupees by fraudulent means at the expense of prospective job seekers abroad.

Check hotline if in doubt

SLBFE Chairman Kingsley Ranawaka appealed to all foreign employment seekers to clarify their source before committing themselves. “These migrant labour hopefuls could contact the nearest SLBFE branch or police station, SLBFE hot line 011-2880500, its website www.slbfe.lk etc. for any information, he added.

The Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) said its sleuths took into custody two suspects who were posing as authorised agents at Kandawatte, Ja-Ela along with 24 passports in their possession.

Along with the passports, sleuths had also seized forged documents with the SLBFE emblem and several copies of receipts.

The receipts had been issued to dupe foreign job seekers in return for the money they had taken, and at the time of arrest the two suspects had possessed copies of receipts amounting to Rs.1.5 million, sources added.

However these figures are considered to be only the tip of the ice berg as the suspects are believed to have cheated numerous others over a long period with large amounts at stake. They had obtained large sums of money from unsuspecting foreign employment seekers with the forged SLBFE emblem.

SLBFE Chairman Kingsley Ranawaka said that the Bureau had launched a detailed investigation into the matter.

He added that a large number of such fraudsters had been detected in recent times due to the aggressive approach taken by authorities under the instructions of Minister Keheliya Rambukwella.

“New branches have been set up in rural areas and sleuths have been advised to intensify raids with an effective propaganda machinery too in operation to educate the masses. In addition, a special unit to investigate related complaints has been set up in every Police division,” he added.

Ranawaka was of the opinion that, people were yet falling for these fraudsters due to ignorance and desperation.

In a similar case recently, the SLBFE came across an incident where around 60 people had been duped to nearly Rs. 20 million with the promise of lucrative jobs in South Korea using a forged SLBFE emblem.

Subsequent to that, authorities said they had busted a large scale human trafficking racket which tragetted US military camps in Iraq. Following investigations, the SLBFE took steps to annul the licences issued to five foreign employment recruitment agencies.

Today remittances made by Sri Lanka’s migrant labour fraternity is considered as the countries top foreign exchange earner.

Thus many culprits has sought to earn a quick buck buy duping prospective migrant labours, specially with the unprecedented growth of the industry in recent times.

Authorities in a bid to plug loop holes in the existing system recently declared that, they were involved in a major exercise to overhaul the outdated 1985 Act.

The Foreign Employment and Welfare Ministry too put forward a National Policy on labour Migration recently.

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