Mangaluru, Aug 4: Amidst reports of Gulf job aspirants from across India including from Karnataka often being cheated by the visa agents, the Indian Consulate in Dubai has cautioned job-seekers not to travel to the UAE on visit visas.
In a recent interview, Indian consul general Vipul had said that the diplomatic mission has been getting calls from those on visit visas to the UAE being duped by fraudulent agents. "Those seeking jobs in the UAE should not come on visit visa and their employment offers must be authenticated along with their entry permit visas before embarking to the UAE," he said.
He said the diplomatic mission had to react after a large number of calls and visits to the mission by Indian workers who have been cheated by agents and employers.
"There was one group of 27 men who arrived here from Uttar Pradesh on visit visas. It was a clear case of cheating as there were no jobs. They were without food or money and we had to step in and buy them air tickets and send them back home. In one instance a woman nurse was given the job of a house maid," Vipul said. He said in some of the cases the consulate holds mediation with the employer to get their passports back and the mission repatriates them.
Vipul said that the Indian consulate in 2016 issued 225 air tickets and this year 186 air tickets have been issued to workers who were cheated and were stranded.
Workers under the Emigration Clearance Required (ECR) are safe to travel if they come under the e-Migrate online recruitment system of the Government of India.
Diplomatic sources said from January to June 2017 there were 792 job inquiries to the mission of which only 66 of them were genuine.
Fake websites of reputed hospitals, educational institutions in the UAE have been created and offering jobs to unsuspecting job seekers from India.
The Indian Workers Resource Centre attached to the Indian Embassy has been detecting such fake job offers. Job seekers can contact IWRC at [email protected] to find out if their visas and job offers are genuine.
Comments
Add new comment