For Visa touts, coastal areas of the State are where all the focus is on these days, owing to the ease with which they can net larger groups of victims. This year alone, a few such cases have been exposed. The latest case was the ordeal undergone by a group of ten from the coastal regions of Thiruvananthapuram who ended up in an isolated building in Bosnia after spending huge sums on a promised job in Israel.
Earlier this year, a group of 19 from the coastal area of Anchuthengu got stranded in a far-flung area in Malaysia in subhuman conditions for three months, before being rescued and brought back home by the NoRKA-Roots. In both cases, the victims were mostly involved in fishing and allied jobs who were unaware of the several recent incidents of visa fraud. In the recent case, one of them was not even aware of the existence of the NoRKA-Roots. Most of them have borrowed huge amounts and are now facing pressure from private lenders.
According to officials at the NoRKA-Roots, visa touts concentrate on the coast as awareness is low and many fall easy prey to their promises.
“Communication within the community is much effective in coastal areas. So, once they get hold of one person, it is easy to get 10 or 15 others to join the group. Some kind of confidence and trust factor work here, as so many people are signing up together. The visa is most often not given to the country where employment is promised. They are usually taken to another country with easier visa norms. It is only later that the victims realise the fraud involved, by which time their only wish would be to somehow make it back home,” said the official.
Brokers
The travel documents are often taken away, with the promise of stamping the visa. The group from Anchuthengu were taken to a plastic factory in Malaysia, where they were made to work for 12 hours a day without any pay, while the group which went to Bosnia were made to stay in an isolated building amid a forested area for months. Though the victims have been able to get back, it is not easy to take action against the agents
“The ones who deal directly with the victims are not visa agents, but mere brokers. They are only the last link of a long chain. The broker would know the person in the next level, but not beyond that. Now, even if action is taken against the agent here, the racket will continue to operate as long as action is not taken against the agents in the foreign countries,” said the official.
Awareness campaigns
NoRKA-Roots CEO K. Harikrishnan Namboothiri says that the organisation has been involved in widespread awareness campaigns warning people against the methods of visa touts. Advertisements campaigns have run in newspapers, radio and television, and in cinema halls during Onam season.
“But awareness campaigns will be more effective if stringent action is taken against the agents. People have to be aware that migration is now purely based on skill set, unlike the situation some decades ago. It is not easy for Indians to get blue collar jobs, as there are more affordable workers from other countries,” he says.
Under the office of Protector of Emigrants of the Ministry of External Affairs, there are more than 1,200 approved agencies. A foreign agency can recruit from here only through one of these approved agencies. But, a thousand others work, away from the eyes of the law, waiting for the next hapless victim.
