Visakhapatnam police rescue five youth stranded in Sharjah

Visakhapatnam city police rescue stranded youth from Sharjah, highlighting lack of assistance from consultancies in foreign employment.

Five youth from the city, stranded in Sharjah, were brought back home by the Visakhapatnam city police here on Wednesday. The youth from various areas of the city have gone abroad for welding and other works. The youth were received by Police Commissioner Shankhabrata Bagchi at the Visakhapatnam Airport.

Speaking to the media, Mr. Shankhabrata Bagchi said that all the youth have completed Intermediate and were trained in welding works. With the help of a consultancy/training institute at Gajuwaka, the youth have gone to Sharjah last year. The company over there conducted some tests. While some got jobs, others did not. Most of them were jobless and were unable to return home. There was no assistance from the company and the agents, the Police Commissioner said.

Mr. Rajesh, one of the victims, said that about seven people have gone to Sharjah after paying around ₹78,000 each to the consultancy. He said that they were given a training for one month. However, they were not provided jobs as promised.

“We were stuck and unable to return home. The consultancy which sent us from here also left us, after failing to coordinate with the company. We saw post of Vizag police in the social media and contacted the Police Commissioner. The police immediately responded and helped us in returning home,” he said.

Mr. Bagchi said that instead of registering cases against the consultancies, the first priority of the police was to ensure the amounts which were paid by the victims were recovered. This was the request from the victims themselves, he said.

Mr. Shankhabrata Bagchi said that not just from Dubai, some Telugu youth got stuck in Saudi Arabia, Cambodia and other countries, have also contacted Vizag police for rescue and the police helped them.

“With the help of officials from Ministry of External Affairs, we are conducting an inquiry on the number of job consultancies, how many of them are registered, how many are not and how many have not renewed their licences,” he said.