Fake Labour Officers collect money from Malayali Shop Owners

keralamonitor.com January 16, 2002.

A number of Malayali shop owners in the Seeb-Al Hail area have said that a gang of Arabs have been visiting their shops and other establishments pretending as Labour inspection offices and collect money in a dubious manner. The gang of four will visit the shops pretending to be Labour Officers on duty, trying to capture illegal workers. The gang will come in a vehicle from the Ministry of Labour and ask for labour cards.

In most of the shops, the workers are not having the visa of the establishment in which they will be working. Normally free visa holders will be working in places other than the sponsor mentioned in the labour card, which is illegal. After checking the labour card, the "officers' will impose some fine of RO 30, RO 50 or more and leave immediately. In fact the gang of criminals are not working for the Ministry, but are trying to make money in this manner. In most cases, the expatriate workers will pay the money and get out of the problem. If you don't pay, they will go away with the labour card.

'In my brother's shop, he employed a Malayali when one of his staff went on leave. The gang came and inspected the shop and found that the new worker was having a different sponsor in his labour card. Then they showed us some papers in Arabic, which I could not understand. Finally they asked us to pay RO 50 as fine and left. Several shops in the Al Hail-Seeb areas had the same problem,' said one Malayali shop owner in Seeb. It is also aid that the gang is visiting shops at a time when the Ministry officials are really checking some of the shops and offices. Shop owners also said that the gang members who were staying in a posh villa in the Seeb-Hail area was later arrested by the Police on the basis of some complaint lodged by the shop owners.