The State government, in cooperation with the Centre, has instituted stringent monitoring mechanisms for preventing human trafficking, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said in the Assembly on Monday.
He was replying to a calling attention motion by Anoop Jacob on the need to frame new guidelines for preventing human trafficking and to stop the operations of fake recruiting agencies.
Anti-human trafficking units
The government views the issue very seriously and a State cell has been set up with an Inspector General of Police, Crime Branch, as nodal officer to look into it. Under the nodal officer, anti-human trafficking units have been formed in all police districts, Mr. Vijayan, said.
Action is taken immediately according to the intelligence information on human trafficking through airports and coastal areas. The cyber wing of the police is helping check the social media-based operations of fake recruiting agencies .
Emigration clearance issue
At present, emigration clearance is not required for those going abroad as domestic help if they have Class X pass as educational qualification. But for those who do not have this educational qualification, emigration clearance is required if they need to work as domestic help abroad. Illegal recruiting agencies take these women on visiting visas abroad and from there, move them to other countries. Hence on many occasions, information about sponsors would not be available.
These kind of underhand foreign recruitment operations can be effectively stopped only if the Centre fully moves all foreign recruitments to the e-migrate system, Mr. Vijayan said. This facility will help in the data collection of those who have gone abroad.
Mr. Vijayan said that NoRKA is taking immediate steps to bring back those who get stuck abroad, either due to fake recruitment or human trafficking, with the help of Indian embassy and non-resident Malayali organisations.
He said that NoRKA is also organising awareness programmes on illegal recruitment and visa frauds. The government has now decided to start an initiative, Operation Shubhayatra, to take action against complaints of illegal recruitment and visa frauds, Mr. Vijayan, added.
