Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Monday took to Twitter to assure the Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj that the State Police chief Suresh Arora had been asked to crackdown on dubious travel agents who duped people looking for jobs abroad.
His tweet came in response to Swaraj’s tweet on Sunday night in which she had requested the Chief Minister to file criminal cases against unscrupulous recruitment agents. “I have requested @capt_amarinder to register criminal cases and proceed against all recruitment agents who mislead and cheat our citizens,” she tweeted.
Replying, Capt Amarinder said: “I have directed the #DGP to crack down on all such recruitment agents @sushmaswaraj ji. We will protect our citizens at all costs.”
Swaraj said that she has also asked the Protector General of Emigrants, the authority responsible for protecting the interest of Indian workers going abroad, to proceed against all such recruitment agents.
There have been cases of fraud against certain recruitment agents who allegedly exploit local people going abroad in the search of greener pastures. “I have also asked @ProtectorGenGOI to proceed against all such Recruitment agents,” Swaraj said in another tweet.
The development comes two days after 40-year-old Gurbaksh Kaur, a resident of Rahon town near Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar (commonly known as Nawanshahr), returned home after a three-month ordeal in Saudi Arabia. The whereabouts of her daughter, Reena Kaur, 23, are still not known.
Urging Sushma to help the mother-daughter, Capt Amarinder had stated that the two were offered work in Malaysia and paid Rs five lakh to the travel agent after selling 10 marlas of farm land in August, but they ended up working as house helps in Saudi Arabia where they were kept in pitiable conditions. Their family shared their plight on social media after which the media highlighted the case.
While announcing Gurbaksh’s return on Saturday, Swaraj tweeted, “The daughter Reena will return soon.” Gurbaksh said that life was hell in Saudi Arabia, where she worked 20 hours a day at the house of a landlord and his 20-member family.
“I was allowed to sleep only after 2 am. I survived on leftovers. I was assaulted by the family and hit with sticks. I wasn’t allowed to step out of the house and one day simply thrown out,” she said. She was arrested as she was not carrying documents.
“The last I saw my daughter was in a hotel in Delhi three months ago. The travel agent said that she had been sent to Saudi Arabia,” Gurbaksh added.