As visa fraud complaints are on the rise in Kerala, police and authorities have been urging the public to exercise caution. They claim that they receive numerous complaints every day from people who allegedly lost money to fraudsters who promised them that they would help them land jobs abroad.
According to police, there has emerged a pattern to these frauds, and it is not limited to one or two individual cases.
“Fraudsters are swindling lakhs of rupees from unsuspecting people by falsely promising them jobs in countries such as Europe, Canada, the UK, and New Zealand," a senior officer told Business Standard.
Thousands of nurses and healthcare professionals from Kerala have relocated to the United Kingdom since 2020, when care workers were included to the shortage occupation list amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Employers were allowed to sponsor migrant workers through the visa route, and their dependents could accompany them.
Many saw this as an opportunity to secure a path to better income and permanent settlement abroad. However, it also created an unauthorised nexus of middlemen and fraudulent recruiters.
Baiju Thittala, Cambridge's Mayor and a member of the Labour Party, stated that he has dealt with at least ten such situations in the last three years.
According to Thittala, about 1,000 to 2,000 Keralites who were victims of visa fraud or exploitation are still in the UK.
As per a BBC report, there were around 30 people in the Ernakulam district’s Kothamangalam town alone who reported having lost millions of rupees while trying to secure UK care visas.
So far, the Kerala Police have registered 172 visa fraud cases in 2024 and filed 21 FIRs (First Investigation Reports).
The modus operandi
According to police, the majority of victims are first approached through fraudulent job adverts on social media. These advertisements frequently mention past success in placing applicants in well-paying employment abroad.
Once the victim is convinced, they are convinced to transfer money for a variety of fees, including registration, visa processing, and travel expenses.
In many situations, the victim never meets the recruiter in person.
Some frauds are perpetrated by individuals living overseas who use the social media accounts of Kerala residents. These local contacts are paid a commission for spreading job postings and serving as a front. The phone number in the advertisement belongs to someone in Kerala, but an international scammer controls the bank account information.
Once the money is transferred, the fraudster disappears.
There have also been cases where victims were taken abroad but never received the promised jobs.
Given these cases, police have urged the public to use only legally authorised agencies when seeking jobs abroad.
