Hyderabad: Minister of state for external affairs V.K. Singh on Saturday said the ministry is grappling with one big problem: Illegal agents. He added that the Centre would work with states to check this menace, appealing to state governments to crack down and take tough action against those involved.
Mr Singh was speaking at Videsh Sampark, the first outreach programme of MEA, held in Hyderabad with the co-operation of Telangana state. Mr Singh pointed out that regular agents have sub-agents, who have sub-sub-agents — the actual culprits. These people resort to illegal measures and send people to Gulf countries, he said.
“Even the Embassy staff do not know complete details of the workforce sent by these illegal agents as they do not register on e-migrate portal. That’s why it is becoming difficult to reach out to these people when they land in trouble,” the minister said, appealing to all migrants to register on this website.
The Centre will work with all states to evolve a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to ensure illegal migration ends forever, he said.
The minister stated that the NRI population abroad has crossed three crores and the MEA is taking all possible steps to address concerns wherever they are, especially in Gulf countries where there are a large number of blue-collar workers.
TS is an important state as far as the MEA is concerned because a large number of overseas Indians belong to this state, he said.
Meanwhile, minister for NRI affairs K.T. Rama Rao stated that the state is leaving no stone unturned to ensure the fake agents menace ends. Hundreds of police cases have been filed against these agents, “including even in my Assembly constituency Sircilla”, he said.
Earlier, Mr Rama Rao requested the external affairs ministry to take steps to extend legal help to Indians who are either jailed or facing trial for different reasons in Gulf countries.
“They also face a communication problem because they do not know English and don’t understand the local language (Arabic). If MEA permits, the Telangana Government is ready to send Telugu translators and lawyers to help them,” he said.
Mr Rama Rao appealed to the Union minister to speak to the Saudi Arabia government in view of problems being faced in bringing back the mortal remains of Indians following their untimely death.
Home minister Naini Narasimha Reddy, Chief Secretary S.P. Singh, MEA secretary Dnyaneshwar Mulay and others also spoke on the occasion.
