20 deceived over job offers

20 deceived over job offers

JAKARTA (JP): Twenty people deceived by a local labor supplier
promising them jobs in Australia have asked immigration officials
for help to reclaim their passports from the company.

A spokesman for the directorate general of immigration,
Mursanudin Ghani, said on Thursday that his office suspected the
firm's president, identified as Taufiq Abdad, of misusing the
applicants' passports.

"The job seekers came to us to ask for help in getting Taufiq
to return their passports," Ghani said, giving no further
explanation.

A day earlier, immigration enforcement chief Haryo Sasongko
quoted the victims as saying that each had paid between AU$500
(US$294) and AU$2,500 to Taufiq's PT Total Usaha Putra Indonesia
on the strength of jobs they had been offered in Australia.

"Taufiq promised the job seekers employment in various
companies in Australia such as at doll company, a perfume maker
and a casino," Sasongko said in a statement.

Six weeks after handing over their money, the people became
suspicious of the company, he said.

None of them have been given their passports back, Sasongko
added.

Sasongko said the job seekers got the information about the
opportunities for employment from the company's secretary,
identified as Dini.

At least 60 people registered an interest in vacancies
advertised by the company.

"At least 20 of the applicants have been flown to Australia,"
Sasongko quoted one of the job seekers, Wita, as saying.

Sasongko said that the case had been reported to the police.
It remains unclear whether the workers to-be have also reported
the fraud to the Ministry of Manpower.

He said his office had sent the company three letters seeking
clarification of the allegations but had yet to receive a reply.

Immigration officials sent on an impromptu visit to the
company's office in Bapindo Plaza on Jl. Sudirman in South
Jakarta found the premises unoccupied, he added. (jun)