| Kippreport.com

Ruthless recruiters deserve exposure

September 30, 2010 2:59 by shafeer

Gulf News has published a story that deserves as much recognition as possible. The paper has conducted an investigation into recruitment rackets – that is, phony recruitment firms whose modus operandi is to fleece unsuspecting job hunters by charging them “administration fees,” “visa costs,” and “processing fees” without any intention of either seeking or providing work.

It’s an industry right under our noses that many of us have encountered, and Kipp – having come across one of these agencies years ago – is kicking itself for not thinking of the story first.

The paper’s plan was simple: A reporter created a fake and truly terrible CV (which included phrases such as “I bring about a steady erosion of values and company ethics… and have hastened the doom of many companies in the past,” and claims that the candidate makes “perilous graphics and inconsistent logos”) and then submitted the CV to a number of employment agencies.

The response was disturbing. The reporter was invited to two agencies, where at Dubai Gate Management Consultancy and Employment Services a member of staff praised the CV and said “We will land you a good job with Dh15,000-Dh16,000 salary, but you have to first pay Dh300 as urgent registration fee.” At the second, Al Aidy Al Mahirah Employment & Management Consult Services, again the staff were impressed with the disastrous CV. “Impressive, you’re just the kind of candidate our client is looking for,” said the recruiter, nodding approvingly before asking the candidate to pay Dh100 as registration fee. “You will get an interview call by tomorrow.” The reporter paid the money, but of course, no job was forthcoming.

It gets better. Leaving the dumbed-down CV behind, the reporter contacted a number of other agencies looking for ridiculous positions, including a hotel manager-cum-outdoor salesman (which Foreigners Employment Management & Consultancy said they had available), and a dentist-cum-accountant (New Future confirmed they had just such an opening). One (Waseela) even had need of elephant trainers. “If you want me to send you to our company’s branch office outside the UAE then you have to make a visa payment of Dh300,” said the recruiter. “We do have our company branch in Canada. We have a whole veterinary hospital there and institute… including zoo… there we have more than 300-400 elephants… and not just elephants but other animals also… we have many trainers but we are looking for more trainers. If you pay us Dh300 we can send you to Canada within 15 to 20 days and also give you a one-way ticket.”

Yes that’s right, one agency promised an elephant training job abroad at a zoo with between 300 and 400 elephants.

At Dubai Gate the reporter noted a total of nine phones on just one of the desks – presumably each phone line belongs to a number of advertisements. The scale of the fraud is shocking, and this deception is perhaps all the more evil as it preys on people desperately seeking work. Kipp is grateful to Gulf News for drawing people’s attention to the crime.

Have you ever come across these unscrupulous practices? What can be done to stop them?

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