Visa racketeers continue to take job-seekers for a ride as yet another case of alleged fraud has emerged, this time involving a group of 15 engineers from India.
The engineers paid hefty sums to some agents in their country to get visas and were also promised jobs in different companies in Qatar. However, nearly three months after arriving in the country, five of these men remain stranded here while the others have gone back to India without any job.
The five men are unable to leave the country as they have been asked to pay huge sums by their local contact to get their exit permits, it is learnt.
With no job and little money, the “stranded” men are finding it hard to make ends meet and desperately looking for a solution to their problem.
The engineers, who hail from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, apparently paid between Rs125,000 (around QR7,500) and Rs160,000 (about QR9,580) to the agents to get the visas. They were also told that they would get jobs in three companies in Qatar.
After arriving in Qatar, they were put up in an accommodation temporarily. However, the situation turned grim when they realised that they had been taken for a ride.
With no job in sight, 10 of the group managed to go back to India. However, the others – who were all purportedly given jobs in the same company – could not go back. They were recently asked to vacate the accommodation as they were unable to pay the rent. They got a reprieve when the building owner realised their predicament and allowed them to stay there for a few more days until they found an alternative shelter.
It has been learnt that the stranded engineers had decent jobs in Chennai (Tamil Nadu). It is also understood that the visas changed hands three or four times before reaching the victims.
Meanwhile, on coming to know about the alleged fraud, sources in the country’s Keralite community made enquiries about the agents to whom the engineers had paid hefty sums for visas.
They found out that the victims had remitted money to the bank accounts of at least two of those named by the engineers as the ones who issued the visas.
Efforts to contact the companies where the engineers were purportedly given jobs failed to yield results.
The victims recently approached the Indian embassy, where they were asked to go to the Labour Department to lodge a complaint.
Meanwhile, a community member managed to speak to a person in Kerala who was reportedly involved in issuing the visas to the group members. He promised to secure exit permits for the “stranded” members “sooner than later”.