Emigration office under CBI scanner

MUMBAI: In its continued action against the office of Protector of Emigrants (POE), which grants emigration clearance to intending emigrants, the CBI recently carried a surprise check on its office at Santa Cruz and over 20 service agents. In the past 15 years, the CBI has made out at least eight cases involving POE officials, the last one being in 2008, but corruption goes unabated, sources said.

The CBI has taken away nearly 125 files from the POE office and several documents from the agents, a source said. A CBI official said that they are scrutinising the documents before concluding the next course of action. "The action is not against any particular POE official as of now," a CBI official said.

POE office, said CBI officials, has been a hotbed of corruption with service agents forging documents for gullible aspirants so that they could take up jobs in unskilled category, mainly in the Middle East. Those who travel on forged documents are in the 'banned' category of labourers such as agriculturists, waiters, helpers, cooks and gardeners. The Indian embassy restricts their emigration because it is found they tend to be subjected to atrocities by employers abroad. The Indian embassy has laid down stringent rules for those seeking to emigrate through the banned category.