KOCHI: Keralites aspiring for jobs in East European countries are falling easy prey to the designs of fake recruitment agencies. In recent months, there is a rise in the number of cases in which job aspirants, especially from Ernakulam district, are cheated by overseas recruitment agencies that promise jobs in Poland.
In the last month alone, 12 cases were registered against recruitment agencies in Kochi for cheating job aspirants after promising jobs in Poland. The recent incident was reported at Infopark police station after a 26-year-old Pathanamthitta native lost Rs 2 lakh paid to a recruitment agency, St Lucia International Consultancy, which operated at Kusumagiri in Kakkanad. The victim was offered a mechanical engineer job in Poland by an agency which operated without proper licence from the Ministry of External Affairs and Protector of Emigrants. Police arrested the owner of the agency Sagil A K and the manager Anil Kumar.
Police probe found that the arrested persons were involved in similar fake job recruitment scams before, and suspect that more job aspirants might have lost money in a similar way. Other than St Lucia Consultancy, Ernakulam North police had registered around six cases against Orion Solutions which operated in Kaloor, Kochi, for cheating job-seekers by offering jobs in Poland. Apart from these, four cases were registered at Kalamassery police station against Jose Consultancy which also took money from many offering work visa in Poland.
“Earlier, when many job-aspirants were cheated by agencies offering jobs in Australia, Canada and the UK, now more cheating cases are being reported, many of them related to jobs in Poland. It is mostly people looking for unskilled jobs who are becoming easy targets. There were social media campaigns especially through YouTube channels that there is a requirement for drivers in Poland. Thus many drivers become easy targets of these bogus agencies. The job-aspirant should ensure that the agency to which they hand over money for jobs in a foreign country at least has obtained approval from the office of Protector of Emigrants,” a police officer said.
In September, the intelligence wing of state Special Branch collected details of suspicious overseas education and recruitment agencies in Kochi. Around 48 were included in the list of such agencies operating within Ernakulam Central, North and South police station limits alone. “Most of these agencies function either as IELTS training centres or foreign education consultants. No licence procedures exist for starting the IELTS training centres and consultancies. We have recommended to the government to set up a licensing body for the recruitment and overseas education agencies so that cheating incidents can be curtailed to a certain extent,” sources in state Special Branch said.
Anoop K A, MD of Overseas Development and Employment Promotion Consultants Ltd, a state government agency, said that job-aspirants should understand that visa processing to Poland is not an easy procedure. “Poland provides manpower to major European countries now. Thus there are job openings in Poland. But Poland also prefers skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workers who know Polish language. So people should not fall for the claims of bogus recruitment agencies that getting jobs in Poland is easy. Similarly, many people are looking for jobs in Poland believing that they can move to other European countries after reaching there,” he said.
Anoop said that, over the years, many Keralites have lost money after falling into the trap laid by recruitment agencies. “This is because there is a high demand for overseas jobs in Kerala. People should thoroughly verify the authenticity of the agency before handing over the money,” he said.