Ministry of External Affairs Government of India

RAJYA SABHA
UNSTARRED QUESTION NO-3918
ANSWERED ON- 06/04/2023

FRADULENT RECRUITMENT BY PRIVATE AGENTS FOR FOREIGN COUNTRIES

3918. SHRI S. SELVAGANABATHY

Will the Minister of EXTERNAL AFFAIRS be pleased to state :-

(a) whether Government is aware that lot of illegal recruiting agents are fraudulently sending poor and illiterate persons abroad and If so, details of the persons sent fraudulently in the last four years;

(b) whether Government has taken any action against such illegal recruiting agents in last four years and if so, the details thereof, State/UT-wise, if not, the reasons therefor;

(c) whether in most of the cases recruiting agents are untraceable and if so, the details thereof; and

(d) whether Government is planning to create any special operation group to take timely action against the illegal recruiting agents?

ANSWER
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS
(SHRI V. MURALEEDHARAN)

(a to d) The Government of India encourages only legal form of migration from India. The Ministry regularly organizes outreach programs to sensitize various stakeholders about benefits of safe and legal migration and on possible ways of preventing illegal migration through fake or unregistered recruitment agencies. Information about illegal agents is also uploaded and updated on regular basis on the eMigrate Portal.

Ministry also issues advisories, media briefings and tweets about fake job rackets from time to time. Such communications are also issued by concerned Indian Missions/Posts abroad through their websites and social media handles and through the print media. During 17th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas at Indore, Hon’ble Prime Minister released a special postal stamp highlighting the principle of "Safe and Legal Migration”.

Quick and decisive action is taken by concerned Indian Missions/Posts as well as by Protector of Emigrant offices in India whenever instances of exploitation of workers by illegal agents are noticed. As on 10 February 2023, 2458 illegal agents have been notified in eMigrate Portal. This information is regularly updated based on complaints filed by affected individuals. These complaints are also forwarded to concerned state police authorities for taking suitable action against illegal/fake agents as per existing laws.

Details of complaints received and forwarded to State Governments for action and request received from State Governments for issue of prosecution sanction and sanctions issued during the last four years are as under: