The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : Overseas job-seekers urged to get emigration clearance

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Saturday, Jul 04, 2009
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Overseas job-seekers urged to get emigration clearance

Special Correspondent

Check veracity of job offers, says Pravasi association

KOCHI: In view of the recent uptrend in fraud in overseas recruitment from the State, the Kerala Pravasi Sangamam has advised job-seekers to make sure that they undergo emigration clearance before going abroad.

This will leave with the government authorities all crucial information about the job-seeker - the company offering the job, the place of work and other details, T.P. Antony, president of the organisation, told The Hindu. This will help the Indian embassies to keep tabs on the fate of the job-seekers.

Mr. Antony said the job-seekers should get a copy of the job agreement from the employer abroad and send copies to government agencies such as the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs and the NoRKA. He urged them to check out the credibility of the recruiting agencies and persons and the veracity of the job offers with government agencies, NRI associations and professional bodies before making any commitment and any payments.

Job frauds

Mr. Antony’s advice is in the backdrop of reports of several job frauds that have surfaced in the recent months in Kerala. A group of veterinary professionals and homoeopaths were defrauded of several lakhs of rupees by a person offering them attractive jobs in Spain.

Again, dozens of semi-skilled young men are currently in trouble in Russia where they were taken by a Kollam-based recruiter.

The Union government and the State government are now taking steps to get these young men, stranded in Russia without food, shelter or job, back to India.

Mr. Antony said private agencies should be totally banned from recruiting for overseas jobs to prevent recruitment fraud. Only government agencies should be allowed to do the job, he said.

He also urged the government to lift the age ceiling for receiving benefits from the Pravasi welfare fund.

It was unfair to put an age ceiling (55 years) as thousands of people who had worked abroad for several decades and who had returned home without any savings would not be able to benefit from the fund.

He also urged the government to pay a monthly allowance, on the lines of the unemployment allowance, to the Keralites who had been forced to return following loss of jobs in the wake of global recession.

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