RIYADH, 28 January 2007 — Indian police in the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have destroyed yet another employment racket victimizing poor and illiterate job seekers keen to make it either to Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates.
One person is in police custody in Belgaum in northern Karnataka.
According to reports reaching here, the police are questioning the alleged suspect who admitted having conned 32 young men with the promise of jobs in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
He fleeced them for a total of SR150,000.
Twenty-six men were promised jobs in Dubai for a fee of SR4,500 per person while those bound for Saudi Arabia paid SR5,600 each. The placement fees were borrowed from loan sharks.
The police suspect an organized gang in Hosur, in Tamil Nadu and are investigating further.
The uneducated victims were often misled with promises of quick money in the rich Gulf nations.
Some “recruitment agents” take advantage of a widely-held notion that Gulf means money where any job fetches a large amount.
Some agents succeed in sending workers to the promised land but most of the workers get little but exploitation.
Usually it takes years for them to repay the loan they borrowed at the beginning and their dreams are shattered in no time.
