Errant recruiting agents to be punished:

Regulatory framework in the pipeline

Minister of Foreign Employment Thalatha Athukorala was interviewed by the Sunday Observer to ascertain the situation of institutions coming under her purview and the action taken to nab errant job agents.

Excerpts of the interview

by Jaliya Wijjekoon

Q: It is the belief that your Ministry and its affiliated institutions are riddled with corruption and malpractices. Your comments?

A: I agree with what you say to a great extent. I must tell you that there are good people too in my ministry, who discharge their duty with diligence.

They are efficient, honest and trustworthy. It took a few weeks for me to study the whole set up and now I am aware of the entire operation of all institutions under my ministry.

I have had lengthy discussions will key personnel of these institutions and have identified the lapses. I have already taken remedial measures to avert a re-occurrence of corruption in the future.

As you said earlier, the belief is that corruption and malpractices often happen when people are recruited for foreign employment.

It is true that all this happened during the previous regime. Some people with vested interest were operating a ring with the blessings of politicians and some bureau officials I have taken measures to prevent this from occurring in the future.

Some job aspirants have paid large sums of money to various people who had acted as ministry officials and left them in the lurch. I have received many complaints from victims but in certain cases, no action could be taken against anybody as there was no substantial evidence to prove their claims.

Q: A large number of applicants sat for the Korean language examination conducted by the government and over 2,000 candidates were successful according to the results. How do you envisage accommodating them in employment.

A: The Korean Government has agreed to provide employment and we are in the process of finalizing the lists based on the marks scored by the candidates in the examination. Selections are purely on merit and no political influence is entertained.

Q: Another area where allegations are levelled from the public, are recruiting agents scattered all over the island. What action have you taken to streamline the operations of job agents?

A: I agree with you that unscrupulous, job agents were the culprits.Some of whom are not even registered with the Bureau.

I have issued instructions to my officials to investigate every complaint and take immediate action against errant job agents who swindle innocent foreign job seekers.

We have an efficient investigation team and I have provided them with the necessary resources to carry out their duties.

When a recruitment agency is suspected of committing an offence, the license is suspended and after a thorough investigation, if the person is found guilty, the license would be cancelled.

We have to put an end to the crimes committed by errant job agents. I am particular about poor people being harassed by our agents and I will spare no pains to punish them.

Last week I directed my investigation team over a complaint made by a husband of a woman who had gone to Saudi Arabia over three year ago and was subject to untold harassment by her employer.

The job agent was a woman from Kurunegala who was apprehended with the help of the Kandy Police and produced before the Kandy magistrate who enlarged her on a cash deposit of Rs. 50,000 and a personal bail of Rs. 200,000. Further investigations would be carried out speedily and necessary action would be taken.

I reiterate that I shall not allow any job agent to swindle innocent people who seek employment abroad.

Q: Have you taken any new measures to regularize recruitment procedures by registered job agents?

A: We are working out a regulatory framework for all job agents and they will have to abide by the guidelines and instructions issued by us so that we can minimize corruption and malpractices.

Even in the past, on some occasions the authorities had taken disciplinary action against some agents but no concrete punitive action had been meted out on any of them This has resulted in job agents continuing their practise. Under my supervision no wrong doer will escape the law.