By IANS
New Delhi : Unscrupulous recruiting agents are set to face the wrath of the Indian government.
Sick and tired of the ways of recruiting agents who exploit the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) is now threatening “direct action” against them.
“We intend to have a prosecution clause included once the amended Emigration Act (1983) gets through so that my ministry can act directly against erring agents,” Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi said here.
He was speaking at a function Tuesday where a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between the ministry and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
“As of now, only state governments can take action to prosecute unscrupulous agents,” Ravi said.
He said whenever his ministry got complaints of exploitation of Indian workers abroad, it immediately wrote to the government of the state from where the worker hailed, seeking action against the erring recruiting agent.
“I hope state governments will start work immediately to start prosecution when such cases are pointed out,” he said.
The process of computerisation of the eight Protector of Emigrants (PoE) offices in the country would also go a long way in checking the illegal activities of recruiting agents, he said.
“Once all the offices are computerised, these will be linked with the airports, so that problems like fake visa are checked.”
Ravi said he was particularly concerned about exploitation of women workers, most of who go abroad to work as domestic help.
Stating that there was already a ban on women under 30 emigrating abroad as domestic help, he said: “We don’t want to completely ban the emigration of women workers but actually check it.”
He said that in order to curb the menace of exploitation of Indian women workers abroad, his ministry had set up a helpline.
“Additionally, we are trying to ensure that any lady who works as domestic help (anywhere abroad) should have direct telephone access to the Indian mission in that country,” he said.
Stating that the ministry had signed labour welfare pacts with Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Ravi said: “The agreement with Malaysia is nearly complete. Bahrain and Oman have also agreed to sign to similar agreements with us.”
The minister said that the amended Emigration Act 1983, which has several clauses for safeguarding the interests Indian workers overseas, has been cleared by all ministries concerned and was now awaiting cabinet approval.
“The amended act is at the last stage of being cleared,” he said. “The whole purpose is to ensure that our workers are respected in the countries where they work,” Ravi said.