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Job Aspirants Duped: 500 Nurses From Kerala Stranded In UAE

As many as 500 Indian nurses are now stranded in UAE and facing hardships after being conned by a recruitment agency.

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Ria Das
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500 nurses stranded in UAE: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) recruiting agents duped hundreds of nurses from Kerala on the pretext of lucrative facilities and high salaried jobs. The nurses were charged lakhs and have been allegedly cheated by private recruitment firms. Some of them even wrote to chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan narrating their plight and also took up the issue with MLA K B Ganesh Kumar. As many as 500 nurses are now stranded in UAE and facing hardships. However, the minister's office had denied receiving any such complaint.
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Reen Rajan (30), a native of Kerala, believed to have applied for the job after she came across an advertisement in leading newspapers. She claimed she had given Rs 2.30 lakh for the promised job as the agent was recruiting nurses in UAE on an urgent project amid the pandemic. Thereafter, she was promised that Keralites will be given preference and later was granted a visiting visa, Rajan told Hindustan Times. The nurses were asked to pay money for the formalities and the agent told her that a work visa will be granted once they reach UAE.

500 nurses stranded in UAE: Rajan said upon reaching to the country the nurses tried to contact the placement agents but were herded into dingy rooms and had to stay there for about a month instead.

"Some of them have returned after they came to know they were cheated," she said it was a Kochi-based agency ‘Take Off ’ which recruited them two months back. "Now these agents are saying we can work in care homes and massage parlours,” said Rajan, who quit her job with a private hospital in Kollam to take up the new assignment.

Realising that the woman has been duped, Rajan's brother Rijo Rajan reportedly made inquiries about the agency. It turned out that the alleged fraudster, identified as Firoze Khan, was allegedly involved in another case of cheating and was in jail for some time. He said after his release he closed his agency “Keydot” and started a new one “Take Off” to dupe aspirants. Most of the stranded nurses said they paid between  Rs 2-4 lakh to get the visa. Police are yet to lodge a complaint in this connection.

Earlier this year, twenty healthcare workers from across the country were allegedly cheated by a Bengaluru-based consultancy, which lured them by claiming to help health professionals get employment overseas, TOI reported. In the early days of the pandemic last year, India had sent a team of 88 nurses and medical professionals to the UAE as a friendly gesture. These nurses were from the Indian states of Kerala, Karnataka and Maharashtra and were sent to Dubai as they reportedly specialised in handling intensive care units (ICUs), according to a report in Khaleej Times.

Feature Image Credit: India Today

COVID-19 Kerala nurses duped nurses stranded in uae
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