More powers under new Act:

Rogue job agents arrested

Rasika Somarathna

Foreign Employment Bureau sleuths for the first time made use of the newly vested powers in them under the recent amendments to its act, by arresting without warrant two bogus recruitment agents yesterday.

Sleuths of the SLBFE were vested with powers to arrest without warrant any such unauthorized recruiters under the provisions of recent amendments to the SLBFE Act No. 21 of 1985, passed in Parliament on September 24.

Under amendment No. 56, 2009 strict measures have been proposed against organizations/individuals who engage in unauthorized recruitment of persons for foreign employment with penalties ranging from a maximum prison term of up to four years plus a fine of Rs.100,000 or more.

One such detection was made in Wattala with sleuths busting a bogus agency located in a building in the midst of the town. The owner had been taken into custody.