SLFEB vows stern action against bogus education institutes promising overseas work and study
Bogus education institutes sending students overseas for higher studies promising work and study are to be cracked down by the Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau (SLFEB), officials said. Seven education consultant agencies have been identified for arranging such illegal student programmes without having proper registration with the bureau and stern legal action would be taken against them, SLFEB sources said.
Many students and parents have complained that some of the so-called education institutes as well as job agents motivated youth to proceed overseas on student visas promising jobs and opportunities to obtain degrees from foreign universities and higher education institutes once they get there.
These institutes have charged them vast sums of money in the process. Those students who have fallen prey to this racket are languishing in countries like Australia, South Korea, New Zealand, US, Japan Britain, Singapore and Cyprus as well in Europe without food and accommodation and the promised jobs.
Although education institutes arranging foreign studies for local students don’t come under the purview of the SLFEB, the bureau has the power to regulate any institute that offers overseas jobs for youths, media spokesman of the bureau, Mangala Randeniya told the Business Times.
These institutes should also register with the bureau, he said, adding that they will conduct raids on fraudulent institutes only if they receive complaints from affected persons with concrete evidence to prove their allegations.Legal action could be taken against such racketeers under the Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Act of 1985 and a minimum fine of Rs. 100,000 could be imposed with four years imprisonment.
In a letter to the Business Times, a Sri Lankan professional working in Singapore revealed details of several Sri Lankan students who were languishing in that country. Those students have paid a sum of Rs. 370,000 as the first installment to undergo studies at a Singaporean institute which was arranged by a local foreign education consultancy agency promising them to provide on the job training as well.
They have not been provided with accommodation facilities and they had to study a basic course although those students were promised management studies in Singapore. These students have been stranded in that country without money as Singapore authorities were not allowing persons with student visas to work, he disclosed.
Several Sri Lankans have been maintaining rented flats to provide accommodation facilities for such stranded Sri Lankan students charging US$300 per month from each of them. They were used to rent out one room for seven students and this has become a lucrative business, he added.
He urged other students and the parents not to fall prey to these racketeers who run illegal foreign education businesses.