Minister of Labour and Foreign Employment Manusha Nanayakkara has instructed top officials of the Foreign Employment Bureau to expedite raids on illegal job agents and take legal action against those who had cheated people promising well-paid jobs in Western and Middle East countries, during the past two years.
Kurunegala Senior Divisional Secretary, Administration, R.M. Jayaratne told a meeting of foreign job seekers of Kurunegala District that many complaints have been received by the Foreign Employment Ministry against bogus job agencies that have obtained large sums of money from job seekers promising lucrative jobs.
The Ministry of Foreign Employment requests job seekers to look for foreign jobs only through registered job agencies. The Government is unable to take responsibility for job seekers who offer money to the bogus job agents willingly, he said.
Jayaratne said nearly 356 bogus job agents have been arrested during the past 18 months by the investigators of the Foreign Employment Bureau and those job agents had swindled around Rs. 780 million from innocent job seekers countrywide.
Nearly 450,000 skilled local job seekers are to be sent abroad for jobs during this year and 700,000 youths are to be trained on vocational skills and foreign languages before the end of this year at Government Technical Colleges, University of Technology and National University Colleges countrywide at a cost of Rs. 2 billion, he added.
