Youths aspiring to land jobs abroad should guard against online frauds, said D. Jaisankar, Protector of Emigrants, Chennai, here on Saturday.
“Given their fascination for foreign jobs, Indian youth are vulnerable to being duped by fraudsters. As soon as the youths register their details on online job portals, they are flooded with offers, some of them spurious.
Fraudsters seek to exploit them by promising jobs abroad and ask them to deposit money in bank accounts towards fees. Beware of such spurious job offers and verify the offers even if communications come along with documents which appear to be genuine.
Educated youths end up being victims of such frauds,” Mr. Jaisankar said, making a presentation on emigration rules at an awareness programme at the Passport Seva Kendra in the city organised by the Regional Passport Officer.
Mr. Jaisankar urged job aspirants to approach only registered agents and not their sub-agents.
Details of all registered agents were provided on the websites: www.poeonline.gov.in and www.poechennai.in
The portals gave details of upcoming job interviews and all emigration procedures to be followed. All persons, with passports categorised as Emigration Clearance Required, seeking to take up jobs abroad should get emigration clearance from the Protector of Emigrants.
Emigration clearance was required for 17 countries.
Candidates should verify all documents thoroughly, including the visas, especially by getting documents translated if they are in Arabic or English so as to check the category of the job offered, the name of the company, and the salary offered.
Failure to do so often landed them in problem after they reach the foreign shores.
No country issued visas without service fee. However, all service fee paid to agents should preferably be paid in the form of cheque, demand drafts, or online account transfers. When the fee is paid in cash, it becomes difficult to prove charges against unscrupulous agents who cheat gullible and illiterate or semi-literate youths, he said.
The Protector of Emigrants (POE) in Chennai offered pre-departure counselling to those seeking to take up jobs abroad and over 25,000 people had used the same over the past three years. Proposals had been sent to the government to offer such counselling at other POE offices too.
The government was taking steps to sign labour mobility partnership bilateral agreements with more foreign countries so as to protect the interests of Indians taking up jobs in those countries.
An agreement to protect the interests of Indian domestic workers in Saudia Arabia was in the offing soon. Steps were being taken to persuade countries to issue bilingual visas that included an English version.
Later, Mr. Jaisankar and K. Balamurugan, Regional Passport Officer, Tiruchi, fielded questions on emigration and passport procedures from a large number of youths who thronged the Passport Seva Kendra to attend the event.
