INDIA: Recruitment of Workers or Human Trafficking?

Chandigarh, January 19 -- The lid on the recent "drivers recruitment" scam in Chandigarh by a Delhi-based recruiting agent allegedly for the banned Kuwati Transport company, KGL Ltd, has finally blown off.

It has turned out to be a well-organised racket of human trafficking right under the nose of the Ministry of Indian Overseas Affairs. The demand letter of a Dubai-based company, Drake and Scull International, had been forged to attract the gullible candidates.

According to details gathered by the Tribune a forged demand letter and Power of Attorney of Drake and Scull International was submitted to the Protector of Emigrants (POI) for clearance.

Mr VK Sharma, the proprietor of the recruiting agency, Shambros Human Resource Consultants, Karol Bagh, New Delhi, who submitted the documents to the Ministry, refused to talk on the issue.

The Dubai-based company, Drake and Scull International, has categorically denied that it was conducting any interviews in India and no demand letter had been given by it to anyone for this purpose.

The documents were cleared by the officials concerned without raising any doubts about the authenticity of the documents submitted for clearance. The comments of the Protector of Emigrants, Mr RK Singh, could not be taken as he was busy at a meeting.

It could not be ascertained whether the documents were got verified from the Indian Embassy in Dubai or whether the documents submitted to the POI had the seal of the Embassy. The Protector of Emigrants, Chandigarh, Mr K.L.Gandhi, said the documents had come from the Delhi office and the same information had been conveyed to the Chandigarh Police.

"It appears that the fate of the youth still trapped in Iraq and the guidelines of the Ministry has no impact on them. The entire exercise amounts to cheating and forgery has not caught the attention of the officials", said an investigating officer. The matter is also being probed by Chandigarh Police and intelligence agencies

During the recruitment drive in Chandigarh on January 15, the agent had allegedly managed to bring two project managers of KGL, two Kuwati policemen and a driver for KGL for the recruitment drive without creating any doubt in the mind of the government agencies. "In this manner, any person can bring anti-social elements in the guise of the recruitment drive", said sources in intelligence agencies.

The Tribune is in possession of the denial letter by the HR Department of Drake and Scull International, Dubai, UAE, issued on January 17. A close examination of the demand letter "produced" by the agent and the clarification issued by the Drake and Scull International clearly shows that all details on the letter submitted by the former were fake, right from address to the post box number to the signing authority.

"See the alertness of the officials in the Protector of Emigrants. While the fake demand letter supposedly sent by Dubai Company reads as Drake and Scull Co, the second request letter forwarded by the agent to the POI reads the spelling of the company as Drake and Skull. None of the officials could catch the flaw", said sources in the police.

During the investigations by the police, the proprietor of Sanbrose Human Resource Consultants had claimed that he was an authorised agent of Messers Drake and Skulls Limited, a Dubai-based company. He gad produced a demand-cum-authority letter of the company.

Others accompanying the delegation were two project managers of Kuwait Gulf Link Limited, Mr Quadros Dionysious Alexis, Mr Staney Sequeria and Mr Balram Karki, who was a trolley driver in Kuwait. Two officials of the Kuwait Police, Lieutenant Mohamed Jassim Marzouk and a traffic constable, Mubarak Abdullah Alzafri, were also there.

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