Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Police plan security audit of migrant workers

Thiruvananthapuram: The City Police Commissioners office has directed builders, hoteliers, contractors and manpower suppliers employing migrant labourers to register their workforce with the local police.

The police suspect that a considerable number of migrant workers claiming to be from Bihar and West Bengal are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

They are also concerned that lawbreakers, including extremist elements and insurgents, can seek refuge in migrant labour camps. There has also been a marginal increase in crimes, chiefly burglaries, involving migrants.

The police have scant information on the migrant workforce, with the majority employed in the construction sector. Several farmers in the suburbs also employ them.

The police are collecting intelligence on those who imported labourers from other States in significant numbers.

Unauthorised labour suppliers imported migrant labour without recruitment licence from the home State of the workers or employment licence of the State Labour Department.

They recruited poor people by paying an initial amount of Rs.10,000 or more to their families. These �faceless middlemen offered companies cheap labour for less than Rs.300 a day. The labourers would be paid only half the amount.

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