Saturday, August 15, 2009

Bogus job agency operating under SLFEB nose busted

By Dilanthi Jayamanne
The special investigations team of the Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau raided a bogus job agency opposite its premises in Battaramulla. Chairman of the SLFEB, Kingsley Ranawaka said yesterday that the agency in a shopping centre had been functioning under their very noses until Thursday (13) till it raided on a tip off.
"They were in the process of taking money from prospective foreign employees," he said. The agents allegedly had taken five million rupees on the pretext of sending their victims for employment in the Seychelles islands. Ranawaka said the agency was run by a couple who had arrived in a latest model Pajero.
There were around fifty persons when the SLFEB team raided the premises. On questioning them it was revealed that they had been asked to come there for registration for jobs in the Seychelles. Around fifty persons who had gone to the bogus agency with the money for their trip had been taken to the Bureau for further questioning by the team.
The agents had charged Rs. 165,000 from each of their victims. They had alleged that a person who had worked in a legitimate foreign employment agency was also involved with the couple and had assisted in getting the victims’ their passports, Ranawaka said.
The couple was to be produced before a Colombo Magistrate yesterday, he said.

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