By Damion Mitchell, Staff ReporterMORE THAN 50 overseas job seekers have lost thousands of dollars to illegal employment agencies within the last two weeks, the Ministry of Labour and Social Security said yesterday.
"It is difficult to tell the number of illegal agencies but it could be as many as one hundred or more. And more persons are falling prey to them," said Barrington Bailey, the Ministry's Senior Director of Manpower Services.
He told The Gleaner yesterday that on average, the Ministry receives 10 reports from persons who have been tricked by illegal employment agents.
Mr. Bailey said that while several perpetrators have been prosecuted, the majority of them evaded the authorities, as they did not operate from permanent addresses but instead they communicated with their clients via cellular phones.
According to Mr. Bailey, the illegal agents advertise overseas jobs for, among other things, teachers, masseurs, hotel workers and waitresses and arrange for applicants to make deposits at local remittance offices to secure the jobs.
However, after making the payments, the applicants are unable to contact the agencies to recover their money. Mr. Bailey said, recently, one person lost $60,000 through the scam and that up to last week six persons complained that they paid $21,500 each through a remittance agency to secure overseas jobs. They have since learnt that these jobs did not even exist.
Efforts to get comments from the police on the matter yesterday were unsuccessful. Repeated attempts to contact several persons who advertised overseas employment opportunities also proved futile.
"We are encouraging persons to contact the Ministry before engaging the services of any employment agency because there is nothing we can do after they've paid over their money, if we cannot find the agents," said Mr. Bailey.
He noted that on several occasions persons discovered that they were defrauded only after they visited the offices of the
Ministry on the instructions of the agents to do medical examinations.
However, he said the Ministry does not offer medical examinations nor does it require fees for its overseas employment programmes.
The senior director said that while majority of the complaints originated from Kingston, Mandeville and Montego Bay, persons from all parishes had fallen prey to the unscrupulous acts.
Meanwhile, persons who violate the Employment Agency (Regulations) Act will face harsher penalties should Cabinet approve the proposed amendments to the legislation.
The bill, which is now before the Chief Parliamentary Counsel, will see the fines for operators of illegal agencies moving from $20 to $200,000 and additional charges of $20,000 for each day if they violate the Act after prosecution. There will also be a significant increase in the prison term for related offences, The Gleaner understands.
In June 2002, the Ministry issued a stern warning against illegal agencies, urging them to regularise their operations. But, since then, only 12 have complied, pushing the number of licensed employment agencies to 31. Seven of these offer local employment and the remainder overseas.
