External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today asked the concerned authorities to take strict action against illegal agents who have been sending people on false promises abroad.
Addressing a national conference in New Delhi on NRI marriages and trafficking of women and children, she said people were suffering and being exploited in the name of good opportunities in foreign countries by these agents.
She said, there was a need to create awareness among people that they must opt for government registered agents only.
The minister asked the states to identify such illegal agents who were bypassing all rules and regulations. Her ministry has saved a large number of women who were being sent abroad on the false promise of employment.
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On the issue of NRI marriages, she said efforts are being made to provide justice to those females who have suffered in such marriages. She asked people to carefully verify the NRI grooms before the marriage.
She said in Punjab alone more than 15,000 females have been left by their NRI husbands which is a matter of concern.
The MEA, the minister said, was developing a portal where summons and warrants against absconding NRI husbands would be served, and if the accused did not respond he would be declared a proclaimed offender and his property attached,
For coming up with such a portal, the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPc) needed to be amended to allow district magistrates to accept such summons and warrants put on the portal to be “deemed as served”.
Swaraj said the Law Ministry, Legislative Assembly, Home Ministry and the Women and Child Development Ministry have agreed on the proposal.
Swaraj said the move was aimed at preventing NRI marriages where husbands abandon their wives and abscond or mentally and physically abuse them after marriage in a foreign country.