Govt mulls plugging loopholes in immigration job ads

New Delhi, Nov 22 (PTI) Against the backdrop of terror
suspect Tahawwur Hussain Rana putting out newspaper
advertisements to recruit cadres, the Indian government is
planning to plug loopholes in immigration job ads in the
media.
After thoroughly examining the issue, the Overseas
Indian Affairs Ministry is now exploring ways to ensure that
such advertisements cannot be put out in future.
"We are exploring various options. We are also looking
at bringing out a new legislation to keep an eye on emigration
job advertisements for all the countries," Overseas Indian
Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi told PTI.
According to current practice, the Protector of
Emigrants (PoE) has to monitor job advertisements for 18
countries which come under the Emigration Check Required (ECR)
clause.
Rana, a Canadian of Pakistani origin, had put out an
advertisement in English dailies asking youths willing to
immigrate to US and Canada to appear for interview at a
five-star hotel in Kochi (the city in India's southern state
of Kerala) last year.
Later, he visited Kochi and stayed in a five-star
hotel. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had arrested Rana
and US citizen David Headley for plotting terror attacks in
India at the LeT's behest.
Ravi said the advertisement put out by Rana was not
for ECR countries and that is why it did not come under the
monitoring mechanism.
"We examined the entire issue and found out that it
was out of the purview of monitoring mechanism," Ravi said.
Officials said norms could be incorporated so as to
enable the PoE to keep an eye on job advertisements for
Emigration Check Not Required (ECNR) countries as well.
The minister said the local police will also have to
keep an eye on such job advertisements that appear in the
media.
"The state governments has a role to play. The police
will also have to be vigilant. Even the newspapers have a role
here," Ravi said.
More than 20 teams of National Investigating Agency
(NIA), a federal agency established in the aftermath of 26/11
Mumbai terror attacks are probing the terror links of Headley
and Rana and trying to gather information about the places
they had visited in India between 2006 and 2009.
Officials from the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs
said Government was in the process of finalising a new
immigration law and the provision of monitoring immigration
jobs may be incorporated in the proposed legislation.
The draft of the proposed legislation is ready now and
it has been sent for comments from the Law and Home
ministries. PTI MPB
ANU