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Will
new law help curb fake travel agents racket in Punjab?
WSN Network
 CHANDIGARH: Even
as the business of fake travel agents thrives in
Punjab
and little has the stae government done in terms of trying to save
Punjab's
youth being exploited by these agents, the Union Government seems to
be moving to make a dent. India's Ministry of Overseas Indian
Affairs is now working on a new legislation to crack down on
unscrupulous agents cheating gullible aspirants.
In Punjab, the
fake agents lord over an empire with more than Rs 2000 crore
turnover as the craze for foreign lands among its youth continues
and increases unabated.
The proposed
bill will help keep a check on the recruiting agents who send lakhs
of Indians for various jobs in the
US,
Europe and the Gulf, and will also cover facilitation of visas under
all categories.
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The Bill will
replace the existing Emigration Act, 1983 and will regulate all
recruiting and travel agents who send people abroad for
employment, education or on any other basis. The existing Act
covers only the recruiting agents. |
Earlier, the
Punjab government during Amarinder Singh regime had come up with the
draft of a Human Trafficking Prevention Act but that remained on the
back burner all these years despite bitter memories of tragedies
like
Malta
drowning of hundreds of Punjabi youth.
Four Indian
ministries -- Labour, Finance, Home and Law and Justice -- are
involved in the drafting of the latest bill which will go to
Parliament to become the Emigration Management Act (EMA).
The Bill will
replace the existing Emigration Act, 1983 and will regulate all
recruiting and travel agents who send people abroad for employment,
education or on any other basis. The existing Act covers only the
recruiting agents.
Under the new
Act, all travel agents facilitating visas must get themselves
registered with Union External Affairs Ministry.
For recruitment
from India, foreign employers will also have to get accredited with
Indian missions in the country of employment, without which they
would not be allowed to hire anybody from here.
Visa and
recruitment agents will also be required to create their own
websites, giving information on their track record and the number of
people they have facilitated. The websites will need to be updated
every day. While agents sending students abroad will have to
register online, foreign employers and project exporters will also
need to register their demands online.
Hundreds of
Punjabis migrate to foreign countries, especially the US and Europe,
in search of greener pastures after paying hefty sums to
unscrupulous agents, only to find they've been cheated and that
their migration was not legal. Often, such agents never return the
money even if the promised service was not rendered. As per a
report, this year, till July-end, over 4,000 Punjabis had been
apprehended by the authorities of various countries for trying to
sneak in without valid documents -- 2,176 in
Italy,
426 US, 420 Greece, 180 Germany, 123 France, 80 Canada, and 373 in
the UK.
Under the new
legislation, the present system of Protector General of Emigrants
(PGE) and Protector of Emigrants (POEs) will be abolished. A
committee under the Union Cabinet Secretary will be created to
regulate the recruiters and will also be responsible for redressing
grievances. The net effect of the new Act will be that the entire
gamut of migration -- from raising of demand for workers to
departure of a candidate -- will be handled online, thereby leaving
no role for the age-old offices of the PGE and the POEs.
12
August 2009
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