The Tamil Nadu unit of the Ministry of External Affairs, the Protection of Migrants (PoE), organized an awareness walk today (February 8) at 7.30 am at Elliot’s Beach, Chennai.Frauds continue to occur claiming that there is a high-paying job opportunity abroad. Some illegal agents are involved in such frauds. The Central Government’s PoE is taking action against them. It is also continuing to conduct awareness campaigns so that people do not get cheated by fraudsters. As part of this, an awareness walk was organized at Elliot’s Beach, Chennai today.Students, job seekers and the general public participated in this.Krishnamoorthy, Commissioner, Resident Tamil Department, said at the event, “The Ministry of External Affairs has initiated this program to ensure that those going abroad through registered agents should go only through registered agents. The Tamil Nadu government has also organized such awareness programs in collaboration with many departments. We are conducting training and awareness programs in our office in Chennai and in seven districts where there are a lot of migrants. In addition, we are also providing free services to resolve doubts from our office 24 hours a day.We are continuously conducting such awareness programs with coordinators to help migrants in countries like Gulf and Malaysia with their problems. After the PoE, we are working with them to take action against unregistered agents. There are 200 agents registered with the Ministry of External Affairs. Go abroad only through them”.Rajkumar, IFS, Migrant Protection Officer, Tamil Nadu “We have heard stories about people who are deceiving us by saying that they are taking us abroad. But now they are going a step further and using us as cyber slaves to scam people. Not only are the migrants being cheated, but they are also using them to cheat us and cause economic loss. They say that if you want to get out of this cyber slave, you will only be released if you pay a certain amount. The awareness program for this is ‘Pathu Bonga’. We are clarifying many things in this program like whether we go abroad only through registered agents or whether we go abroad through a valid visa without a tourist visa.”Dr. Sandeep Mittal, IPS ADGP Cyber Crime said, “Many people from our country go abroad to work. Most of them do not go through a legitimate agency. They go abroad after getting a tourist visa. There they are forced to work in scam centers. All the phone calls threatening people like digital arrest and stock market come from scam centers. Many people who go abroad get trapped there and become cyber slaves. If someone tells you that they are getting you a job abroad like this, you should be very careful. You should go only through a registered travel agency. This walkathon program is being conducted to create awareness about this.”Surender Bhagat, IFS. The External Affairs Ministry’s Guardian General for Migrants said, “We have organized the ‘Pathu Bonga’ program to create awareness among those going abroad about how to travel abroad safely and properly without getting cheated, and what are the procedures for doing so. This campaign will be helpful to those in all corners of Tamil Nadu.”
