Any person, who recruits any emigrants without any valid certificate issued by competent authority, will be liable for imprisonment for a term of two years and fine also. And the competent authority is the Proctor-General of Emigrants of the Government of India.
Thousands of poor people from Odisha are moving out to several foreign countries for jobs and a lot of them are facing harassment due to illegal emigration.
The State Crime Branch has issued a circular in this regard asking the senior police officers to take appropriate action against the fraudulent recruitment agencies and persons who are engaged in such illegal action.
Special DGP Crime Branch BK Sharma has issued circular after the State Government decided to take stringent action against the illegal recruitment agency or the person, who are sending emigrants to Middle East, South East Asian countries for employment without any valid authorization from the Proctor General of Emigrants.
Earlier, ACS Home Asit Tripathy chaired a High Powered Committee (HPC) meeting and it was decided that the Crime Branch will issue necessary circular to curb illegal recruitment by unauthorized persons and institutions and crack the whip against them.
Principal Secretary labor and ESI G Srinivas, who attended the meeting, is moving ahead with a proposal for setting up a separate organization to handle the issues of emigrants, said sources.
In recent years, recruitment of skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workers from Odisha to the foreign countries is on the rise. Often unauthorized persons and organizations are sending emigrants illegally for which these poor people are facing trouble times in the foreign countries.
So the State Government has decided to crack down on the illegal organizations and persons behind such transfer of personnel.
Accordingly, the Crime Branch has emphasised on a sensitization programme for police officials about the Emigration Act, 1983, so that appropriate legal action to check fraudulent and illegal emigration is initiated.
The CID-Crime Branch has made it clear that under Section 16 of the Emigration Act, 1983, an employer has been mandated to recruit any citizen of India for employment in any country or place outside India only through a recruiting agent with valid permit issued under the Act.
Any employer violating the aforesaid provisions of Act is liable for punishment under Section 24 of the Act, which provides imprisonment for two years and with fine up to Rs 2,000.
And, Section 24(5) provides that in respect of second conviction, the punishment shall be double. The Section 25 of the Act provides for similar punishment in respect of an offence committed by a company, which means any corporate body, a firm or association of individuals.