As a prelude to curbing the menace of non-registered agents, office of the Protector of Emigrants, under the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, has come up with a list of registered recruiting agencies in the four southern districts working under its jurisdiction.
The list prepared by the Protector of Emigrants-1 has 36 registered recruiting agencies operating in the districts of Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Pathanamthitta and Alappuzha.
“The illegal overseas manpower recruitment by non-registered recruiting agencies is on the rise recently. The prospective emigrants, recruited by non-registered agents, suffer a lot in the foreign country as they are open for harassment by the foreign employer since they are not provided with the agreed salary and other perks,” said Pradeep A, Protector of Emigrants-1.
Usually non-registered agents lure prospective emigrants with high salary and opportunities and thus charge very high amount from the emigrants.
“Since the agents are not registered with the government, they are not answerable to the government. If any complaint in regard to violation of agreed contract conditions are made against the registered recruiting agents, the government can direct the agent to address the grievances of the complainant, failing which necessary legal action can be taken against such agencies,” he said.
Already, Norka-Roots is carrying out a host of programmes to end the exploitation of overseas job seekers by agents and middlemen.
Also, Norka-Roots conducts pre-departure orientation programmes to make overseas job aspirants aware about general job situations abroad and to impart essential information related to visa, emigration rules, employment contract, customs regulation, travel formalities etc.
Pre-departure orientation programmes are conducted regularly in all districts through the regional centres of Norka-Roots functioning in Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam and Kozhikode.