Following a series of complaints received against foreign job agents, who sent under-aged girls for foreign employment on false documents and brokers in the Eastern Province, the Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau (SLFEB) briefed Eastern police units on how to tackle them.

Chairman of the SLFEB, Kingsley Ranawaka, said at a press conference on Thursday (19), that the Bureau had briefed the Police for the first time in the East that many job agents and brokers made false claims of foreign employment and also recruited under-aged girls for employment giving a false age in the required documents.

The Special Investigative Unit (SIU) of the Bureau, addressed the Eastern police units in Batticaloa and Trincomalee to create awareness on how they should act or collaborate with the Bureau when they received complaints of corruption and malpractices.

They were briefed on what legal action should be taken. Many of the agents and brokers took money from the employer and the prospective employee as well. The Police are authorised to intervene in such cases, he said.

"In fact we even thought of carrying out a house to house awareness campaign with the hope of preventing people being cheated by such agents and brokers," the Bureau Chief stated.

However, the SLFEB said they planned to open a new training centre in Batticaloa and a district office to provide all services to the people who wish to seek foreign employment, he said. Ranawaka said he had met with the Chief Minister of the Eastern Province to discuss the matter.