Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan announced that a special mission, named ‘Operation Shubhayatra’, would be launched to prevent visa fraud, illegal recruitment and human trafficking. The CM stated thi s in the Kerala Assembly in reply to a calling attention motion by Anoop Jacob.

“To prevent human trafficking, a strict surveillance system has been set up in coordination with the Centre. But such exploitation can be stopped effectively only if the central government decides to shift all types of foreign recruitments to the e-migrate system. This system would also be helpful in collecting data of those abroad,” CM Pinarayi said.

“A state cell, with the Crime Branch IG as the nodal officer, is functioning. Under the supervision of the nodal officer, anti-human trafficking units have been set up in all police districts. Action is being taken based on the tip-offs over human-trafficking via the coastal areas and airports. The service of the police's cyber wing is also being utilised to prevent recruitment scam via social media,” Pinarayi said.

“With the help of the Indian embassy and pravasi (expatriate) organisations, the NoRKA department is also taking steps to bring back those who get stranded abroad due to fake recruitment and human trafficking, the CM added.

Recently, a major human trafficking racket with overseas terror links came to light after a few women who were duped by recruiters approached the Kerala Police after escaping from Kuwaiti homes where they were offered job placement.