PANAJI
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has sounded an alarm that job aspirants, lured by promises of high-salaried jobs abroad are sent to smaller or poorer countries where they become victims of human trafficking.
With several illegal agents preying on the vulnerable young population, Sawant has urged Goans to choose opportunities in Goa while directing the police to “shut shops” of such recruitment agents.
“All this while, we have encountered cases of human trafficking, particularly women from different states and countries being pushed into prostitution and begging in Goa. But we should also look at the instances wherein Goans are lured with the high-salaried jobs abroad and end up becoming victims of human trafficking,” he said while speaking at a State-level conference on Anti-Human Trafficking in the capital on Friday.
Sawant revealed a recent case wherein a job agent cheated six local boys of several lakh in the guise of offering them lucrative jobs abroad. “The boys came to me narrating their entire story. Each of them paid Rs 2.50 lakh to Rs 5 lakh to the agent. Ultimately neither their passport, visa arrived nor was any job offered to them. The agent had fled with their money,” he said adding that police were able to arrest the illegal agent and recover the money.
“The agent had also taken a couple of boys abroad. When this group contacted those boys, one was sent to a poor country and another was arrested by the local police,” CM added.
While such cases are on the rise, the CM has directed the State police to keep a close watch on the media advertisements by such agents and take suo-motu cognizance. The police force, he said, has to be sensitive to the issue and clamp down on the organised job racket thriving in the State. “I have given instructions to the police to shut shops of the illegal recruitment agents,” he said.
Sawant reiterated his appeal to the Goan youth to work within the State as ample job opportunities are being created for the locals. “Every year, several crores of rupees go into fraud from Goa. Don’t give away your hard-earned money to illegal agents. There are ample opportunities in all the sectors in Goa. One has to choose the job of his choice,” he said.
Also the State Home Minister, Sawant maintained that at least two lakh jobs will be created in the hospitality sector in the next five years. “I am saying it again…from agriculture to the hospitality sector, from an IIT student to IT student, our Goan youth should be ready to grab these opportunities and make their career in their own State,” he stated.
Encouraging the youth to start working even from a lesser salary, he revealed that Goans have gone up to earning multiple times more than their first salary by “slowly walking up the ladder of career.”
Aiming to make Goa a role model to combat human trafficking, Sawant asked Goa Police to coordinate with other states from where gullible population are trafficking to various destinations including Goa.
