Human trafficking :

Hundreds smuggled to Iraq

Rasika SOMARATHNA

A large number of people had been trafficked mainly to Iraq via middle east destinations, on the promise of lucrative job opportunities in US military camps, the Daily News reliably learns according to ongoing investigations.

According to authorities, considering the details unearthed by sleuths, the case is emerging as the biggest of it’s kind in recent times.

According to sources one agent had charged at least Rs. 250,000 each from more than 30 people to send them across borders illegally, with another believed to have been allegedly involved in at least 100 such cases based on emerging evidence.

The Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) also said that they were investigating a couple of other licensed agents as well as they possessed evidence linking them to the racket.

It is believed that these people had been taken to Middle Eastern destinations using visit visa’s and then had taken illegal routes to send them across borders to Iraq and some other destinations.

Recently the world media reported the plight of a large number employment seekers in Iraq of Asian origin, with a number of Sri Lankans among them, who were stranded without jobs or other basic facilities.

Some of them were reported to be begging in the streets of Baghdad to make a living.

Authorities yesterday took steps to annul the licenses, issued to five foreign employment recruitment agencies, citing involvement in human trafficking as the main reason.

A SLBFE spokesman said three agents from Colombo and two from Kandy had been taken to task, after sleuths discovered a large number of forged documents, Visa’s, passports etc. in their possession.

The SLBFE yesterday warned such job seekers not to be misled by such rogue agents, while appealing to persons to seek clarification from the Bureau immediately before committing themselves.

According to a recent US survey, Sri Lanka has been identified as possessing all ingredients necessary for human trafficking.

But according to local authorities the situation is not that alarming like in some Asian countries, but effective measures are needed before the issue gets out of hand.

Human trafficking refers to cases where a person is sold or bartered without his or her knowledge and acts of selling or promotion to sell are also considered trafficking under the penal code.

The SLBFE Chairman Kingsly Ranawaka recently declared that, the authorities were involved in major exercise to overhaul the out dated 1985 Act in a bid to plug loop holes.

The Ministry of Foreign Employment and Welfare too put forward a National Policy on labour Migration recently.

Thus the SLBFE said that they had launched a thorough investigation to the incident and also was trying to trace the whereabouts of those people who had been trafficked. RJ

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Other detections

May 14, 2008 : SLBFE officials detect 20 youth stranded in Kuwait, who claim that they were duped by an agent after taking a large sum of money with the promise of jobs in Iraq.

August 29, 2008 : Sleuths bust a ring of rogue agents, operating in luxury vehicles near the Immigration and Emigration Department.

October 15, 2008 : Two recruitment agents in Colombo taken to task, for sending teenagers abroad on false documents.

December 08, 2008 : An organized gang dupes 60 foreign job aspirants to the tune of Rs.20 million, armed with letters with the forged SLBFE emblem.

March 2009 : SLBFE sleuths bust more than 70 rogue foreign employment agents during the first three months of 2009.

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