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GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS
LOK SABHA
UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2370
ANSWERED ON 13/02/2026
INDIAN YOUTH DUPED BY TRAVEL AGENTS
2370. SMT. HARSIMRAT KAUR BADAL
Will the Minister of EXTERNAL AFFAIRS be pleased to state:-
(a) whether the Government is aware of the growing number of Indian
youth, particularly from Punjab and other northern States, being duped
by unscrupulous travel and immigration agents who send them abroad
through illegal “donkey routes” or fraudulent visas, resulting in their
detention and deportation by foreign authorities;
(b) if so, the number of such youth sent through such fraudulent ways
and routes;
(c) the number of Indian nationals deported from foreign countries in
the last five years, country-wise and year-wise;
1(d) whether any assessment has been made on victims of such illegal
agents, if so, the details thereof;
(e) the number of FIRs registered and prosecutions launched against
illegal travel/immigration agents in Punjab and other major source
States over the last three years, including those booked under anti
human smuggling laws; and
(f) the steps taken or proposed by the Government publicise the list of
blacklisted/unauthorised agents?
ANSWER
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS
(SHRI KIRTI VARDHAN SINGH)
(a to c) Government has been made aware of instances where dubious
entities involved in fake recruitment job offers have lured Indian
nationals including from Punjab and other northern States, mostly
through social media channels for overseas employment to various
countries. Such fraudulent activities of illegal/unscrupulous
recruitment agents in the country come to light as and when a
2complaint is filed by the aggrieved emigrants or their
relatives/friends/family members, who have been cheated, since these
Indian nationals proceed abroad on their own volition through
fraudulent/unscrupulous recruitment agents and through illegal
channels. Specific data on the number of Indian nationals who have
attempted such irregular migration, is not available.
Most of the foreign Governments do not provide information on illegal
stay by foreigners in their countries, except when they are under
orders of deportation and travel document/nationality verification is
required. The procedure followed for deportation of foreign nationals
also varies from country to country. Some countries do not arrest the
deportee but keep them in detention/deportation centers until
deportation. Information about arrest/detention and deportation is not
shared with Indian Missions/Posts and the deportation is done directly
by the host Government if the deportee has a valid Indian travel
document. Indian Missions/Posts are contacted by the host
Governments only in such cases where nationality verification and
3issuance of Emergency Certificate (EC) to the deportee is required.
However, based on information available with our Missions abroad,
country-wise and year-wise data of Indian nationals deported for
various reasons in the last five years, is given in Annexure-A.
(d to f) As per Section 10 of the Emigration Act, 1983, no
person/agency can function as Recruiting Agent (RA) without a valid
Registration Certificate (RC) issued by the Registering Authority, i.e.,
Protector General of Emigrants (PGE). As and when complaints of
illegal migration/human trafficking are received, such matters are
referred to the State police for investigation and prosecution under the
relevant legal provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and
other legislations in place.
State-wise details of complaints registered and action taken by law
enforcement agencies against unregistered/illegal recruiting agents
during the last three years are given in Annexure-B.
4Ministry issues advisories through eMigrate portal, social media
handles, and other modes of publicity about the perils of fake job
rackets and ways to prevent the same. Till January 2026, a list of
3,505 unregistered agents, against whom grievances have been
received, has been published on the eMigrate portal to caution the
prospective emigrants. The awareness campaign on safe and legal
migration through eMigrate portal has been carried out by the Ministry
across the country by conducting workshops, trainings, information
sessions, digital campaigns for media groups, police officials and law
enforcement agencies, local administration, aspiring recruiting agents,
entrepreneurs and general public. During these sessions awareness on
emigration regulations, schemes beneficial for emigrants like Pravasi
Bharatiya Bima Yojana (PBBY), Pre-Departure Orientation Training
(PDOT), eMigrate portal and various advisories issued by Indian
Embassies are brought to the notice of all stakeholders.
The Protector General of Emigrants (PGE) in the Ministry of External
Affairs through 16 Protector of Emigrants (PoEs) across India, regularly
coordinates with the State Governments regarding issues of illegal
5recruiting agencies and the ways to address challenges related to
enforcement of emigration rules and regulations. The Ministry
regularly organises such outreach programs to sensitise various
stakeholders about the benefits of safe and legal migration and
suggests ways to prevent illegal migration through fake/unregistered
recruitment agencies. In addition to the regular information sharing on
unregistered recruiting agencies, regular meetings with the State level
Nodal Officer are held. Further, workshops & training sessions are held
by the Ministry for the law enforcement agencies of the State
Governments in which information on the Standard Operating
Procedures (SOP) of the Ministry, detection of unlawful content on
social media, and case studies of Cyber Scamming is shared with the
participants.
*****
6Annexure-A
DATA ON INDIAN NATIONALS DEPORTED FROM FOREIGN COUNTRIES
Number of Indian nationals deported from foreign countries
Sl. Name of the Name of the
No. Country Mission/Post
2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
1 Afghanistan EOI, Kabul 0 0 0 0 0
2 Albania EOI, Tirana 0 0 0 0 0
3 Algeria EOI, Algiers 0 0 0 1 2
4 Angola HCI, Luanda 0 0 0 0 0
EOI, Buenos
5 Argentina 0 0 0 0 0
Aires
6 Armenia EOI, Yerevan 0 0 0 0 0
7 Australia HCI, Canberra 0 0 9 0 0
8 CGI, Melbourne 0 0 0 0 0
9 CGI, Sydney 0 2 7 28 16
10 CGI, Perth 0 0 0 0 0
711 CGI, Brisbane 0 0 0 1 3
12 Austria EOI, Vienna 0 0 0 0 0
13 Azerbaijan EOI, Baku 0 0 0 0 0
14 Bahrain EOI, Bahrain 0 0 0 0 0
15 Bangladesh HCI, Dhaka 0 0 0 0 0
AHCI,
16 0 0 0 0 0
Chittagong
17 AHCI, Khulna 0 0 0 0 0
18 AHCI, Rajshahi 0 0 0 0 0
19 AHCI, Sylhet 0 0 0 0 0
20 Belarus EOI, Minsk 0 0 0 0 0
21 Belgium EOI, Brussels 0 10 19 5 4
22 Belize EOI, Mexico city 0 0 0 0 0
823 EOI, Thimphu 0 0 0 0 1
Bhutan
CGI,
24 0 0 0 0 0
Phuntsholing
25 Bolivia EOI, La Paz 0 0 0 0 0
26 Botswana HCI, Gaborone 0 0 0 0 0
27 Brazil EOI, Brasilia 0 0 0 0 0
28 CGI, Sao Paulo 0 0 0 0 0
29 Bulgaria EOI, Sofia 0 0 0 0 0
EOI,
30 Burkina Faso 0 0 0 0 0
Ouagadougou
31 Cabo Verde EOI, Praia 0 0 0 0 0
EOI, Phnom
32 Cambodia 0 0 0 0 0
Penh
33 Cameroon HCI, Yaounde 0 0 0 0 0
34 Canada HCI, Ottawa 3 26 48 30 48
935 CGI, Toronto 27 38 60 63 198
36 CGI, Vancouver 0 0 0 0 0
37 Chad EOI, N'Djamena 0 0 0 0 0
38 Chile EOI, Santiago 0 0 0 0 0
39 China EOI, Beijing 5 5 3 4 7
40 CGI, Shanghai 3 1 2 1 1
41 CGI, Guangzhou 1 6 21 26 8
42 CGI, Hong Kong 123 166 207 201 300
43 Colombia EOI, Bogota 0 0 0 60 0
EOI,
44 Comoros 0 0 0 0 0
Antananarivo
45 Cote D'Ivoire EOI, Abidjan 0 0 0 0 0
46 Croatia EOI, Zagreb 0 0 0 0 0
47 Cuba EOI, Havana 0 0 0 0 0
1048 Cyprus EOI, Nicosia 46 96 173 183 163
Czech
49 EOI, Prague 0 0 0 0 0
Republic
Democratic
50 Republic of EOI, Kinshasa 0 0 0 0 0
Congo
EOI,
51 Denmark 0 0 0 0 0
Copenhagen
52 Djibouti EOI, Djibouti 0 0 0 0 0
Dominican EOI, Santo
53 0 0 0 0 0
Republic Domingo
54 Ecuador EOI, Quito 0 0 0 0 0
55 Egypt EOI, Cairo 0 0 2 0 0
Equatorial
56 EOI, Malabo 0 0 0 0 0
Guinea
57 Eritrea EOI, Asmara 0 0 0 0 0
1158 Estonia EOI, Tallinn 0 0 0 0 0
59 Eswatini HCI, Mbabane 0 0 0 0 0
EOI, Addis
60 Ethiopia 0 0 0 0 0
Ababa
61 Fiji HCI, Suva 0 0 0 0 0
62 Finland EOI, Helsinki 0 0 0 0 0
63 France EOI, Paris 0 0 0 0 0
64 CGI, Marseille 0 0 0 0 5
CGI, Saint Denis
65 0 0 0 1 0
(Reunion Island)
66 Gabon HCI, Libreville 0 0 0 0 0
67 Georgia EOI, Tbilisi 0 0 0 0 155
68 Germany EOI, Berlin 0 0 0 79 16
69 CGI, Frankfurt 0 0 0 0 0
70 CGI, Hamburg 0 0 0 0 0
1271 CGI, Munich 0 0 0 0 0
72 Ghana HCI, Accra 0 0 0 0 0
73 Greece EOI, Athens 0 0 0 0 0
EOI, Guatemala
74 Guatemala 0 0 0 0 4
City
HCI,
75 Guyana 0 0 0 11 5
Georgetown
76 Hungary EOI, Budapest 0 0 0 0 0
77 Iceland EOI, Reykjavik 0 0 0 0 0
78 Indonesia EOI, Jakarta 0 o 0 0 11
79 CGI, Medan 0 11 0 0 3
80 CGI, Bali 5 0 20 20 10
81 Iran EOI, Tehran 0 0 0 0 0
82 CGI, Bandar 0 0 0 0 0
13Abbas
83 CGI, Zahedan 0 0 0 0 0
84 Iraq EOI, Baghdad 0 0 0 0 0
85 CGI, Erbil 0 0 0 0 0
86 Ireland EOI, Dublin 0 0 0 2 5
87 Israel EOI, Tel Aviv 0 0 0 0 0
88 Italy EOI, Rome 1 2 2 6 9
89 CGI, Milan 0 0 0 0 0
90 Jamaica HCI, Kingston 0 0 0 0 0
91 Japan EOI, Tokyo 23 13 16 11 12
92 CGI, Oska Kobe 0 0 0 0 0
93 CGI, Fukuoka 0 0 0 0 0
94 Jordan EOI, Amman 24 28 59 79 61
95 Kazakhstan EOI, Astana 0 0 0 0 0
1496 ROI, Almaty 0 0 0 0 0
97 Kenya HCI, Nairobi 0 0 1 1 1
98 AHCI, Mombasa 0 0 0 0 0
99 Kuwait EOI, Kuwait 0 0 0 0 0
100 Kyrgyzstan EOI, Bishkek 0 0 0 0 0
101 Lao PDR EOI, Vientiane 0 0 0 0 0
102 Latvia EOI, Riga 0 0 0 0 0
103 Lebanon EOI, Beirut 2 3 1 5 2
104 Liberia EOI, Monrovia 0 0 0 0 0
105 Libya EOI, Tripoli 0 0 0 0 0
106 Lithuania EOI, Vilnius 0 0 0 0 4
EOI,
107 Madagascar 0 0 0 0 0
Antananarivo
108 Malawi HCI, Lilongwe 0 0 1 0 0
15HCI, Kuala
109 Malaysia 1439 1188 1182 1259 1675
Lumpur
110 Maldives HCI, Male 16 30 117 194 150
111 Mali EOI, Bamako 0 0 0 0 0
112 Malta EOI, Malta 0 0 0 0 3
113 Mauritania EOI, Nouakchott 0 0 0 0 0
114 Mauritius HCI, Port Louis 0 0 0 0 0
EOI, Mexico
115 Mexico 0 0 0 0 0
City
EOI,
116 Mongolia 0 0 0 0 0
Ulaanbaatar
117 Morocco EOI, Rabat 0 0 0 0 0
118 Mozambique HCI, Maputo 0 0 0 0 0
119 Myanmar EOI, Yangoon 0 338 89 148 1,605
120 CGI, Mandalay 0 0 0 0 0
16121 CGI, Sittwe 0 0 0 0 0
122 Namibia HCI, Windhoek 0 0 0 0 0
123 Nepal EOI, Kathmandu 0 0 0 0 0
124 CGI, Birgunj 0 0 0 0 0
125 Netherlands EOI, The Hague 0 10 58 11 3
126 New Zealand EOI, Wellington 9 20 19 20 6
127 CGI, Auckland 0 0 0 0 0
128 Niger EOI, Niamey 0 0 0 0 0
129 Nigeria HCI, Abuja 0 0 0 0 1
130 AHCI, Lagos 0 0 0 0 0
131 North Korea EOI, Pyongyang 0 0 0 0 0
132 Norway EOI, Oslo 0 0 0 0 0
133 Oman EOI, Muscat 50 57 47 25 25
134 Pakistan HCI, Islamabad 0 0 0 0 0
17135 Palestine ROI, Ramallah 0 0 0 0 0
136 Panama EOI, Panama 0 0 0 215 79
Papua New HCI, Port
137 0 0 1 1 0
Guinea Moresby
138 Paraguay EOI, Asuncion 0 0 0 0 0
139 Peru EOI, Lima 0 0 0 0 0
140 Phillipines EOI, Manila 0 0 0 0 0
141 Poland EOI, Warsaw 14 63 24 14 12
142 Qatar EOI, Doha 803 1,170 1,414 1,136 796
Republic of
143 EOI, Brazzaville 0 0 0 0 0
Congo
Republic of
144 EOI, Conakry 0 0 0 0 0
Guinea
145 Romania EOI, Bucharest 0 0 0 0 0
146 Russia EOI, Moscow 0 0 0 35 284
18CGI, St.
147 0 0 0 0 0
Petersburg
CGI,
148 0 0 0 0 1
Vladivostok
149 CGI, Kazan 0 0 0 0 0
CGI,
150 0 0 0 0 0
Yekaterinaburg
151 Rwanda HCI, Kigali 0 0 0 0 0
Sao Tome and EOI, Sao Tome
152 0 0 0 0 0
Principe and Principe
153 Saudi Arabia EOI, Riyadh 10264 28056 29592 5235 4335
154 CGI, Jeddah 12104 6746 7542 8831 8921
155 Senegal EOI, Dakar 0 0 0 0 0
156 Serbia EOI, Belgrade 7 68 2 5 10
157 Seychelles HCI, Victoria, 0 0 0 0 0
Mahe
19158 Sierra Leone EOI, Freetown 0 0 0 0 0
159 Singapore HCI, Singapore 22 16 21 13 15
160 Slovakia EOI, Bratislava 12 2 0 8 27
161 Slovenia EOI, Ljubljana 0 0 0 0 0
162 South Africa HCI, Pretoria 0 0 0 0 0
CGI
163 0 0 0 0 0
Johanesburg
164 CGI, Cape Town 0 0 0 0 1
165 CGI, Durban 0 0 0 0 0
166 South Korea EOI, Seoul 5 7 4 0 0
167 South Sudan EOI, Juba 0 0 0 0 0
168 Spain EOI, Madrid 0 0 0 0 0
169 CGI, Barcelona 0 0 0 0 0
170 Sri Lanka HCI, Colombo 0 0 0 0 0
20171 AHCI, Kandy 0 0 0 0 0
172 CGI, Jaffna 0 0 0 0 0
CGI,
173 0 0 0 0 0
Hambantota
174 Sudan EOI, Khartoum 0 0 0 0 0
175 Suriname EOI, Paramaribo 0 0 0 0 0
176 Sweden EOI, Stockholm 3 1 27 16 13
177 Switzerland EOI, Bern 0 0 0 0 0
178 CGI, Geneva 0 0 0 0 0
179 Syria EOI, Damascus 0 0 0 0 0
India Taipei
180 Taiwan 0 0 0 0 0
Association
181 Tajikistan EOI, Dushanbe 0 0 0 0 0
182 Tanzania HCI, Dar-e- 0 0 0 0 0
Salaam
21183 CGI, Zanzibar 0 0 0 0 0
184 Thailand EOI, Bangkok 0 0 0 0 0
185 COI, Chiangmai 0 0 0 0 0
186 Timor Leste EOI, Dili 0 0 0 0 0
187 Togo EOI, Lome 0 0 0 0 0
Trinidad & HCI, Port of
188 0 0 0 0 0
Tobago Spain
189 Tunisia EOI, Tunis 0 3 2 0 0
190 Turkiye EOI, Ankara 15 47 23 10 3
191 CGI, Istanbul 0 0 0 0 0
192 Turkmenistan EOI, Ashgabat 0 0 0 0 0
193 UAE EOI, Abu Dhabi 358 587 666 899 1,662
194 CGI, Dubai 876 1,203 2,841 5,221 7,896
195 Uganda HCI, Kampala 0 0 0 0 0
22196 Ukraine EOI, Kyiv 21 13 11 5 5
197 United HCI, London 0 0 0 0 0
Kingdom
CGI,
198 0 0 0 0 0
Birmingham
199 CGI, Edinburgh 0 0 0 0 0
CGI,
200 0 0 0 0 0
Manchester
201 CGI, Belfast 0 0 0 0 0
EOI, Buenos
202 Uruguay 0 0 0 0 0
Aires
USA 3414 (till
203 EOI, Washington 805 862 617 1,368 mid Dec
2025)
204 CGI, New York 16 11 18 26 47
205 CGI, Chicago 0 0 0 0 0
206 CGI, Atlanta 14 10 5 14 31
23207 CGI, Houston 29 32 14 42 234
CGI, San
208 18 43 19 17 49
Fransisco
209 CGI, Seattle 0 0 0 3 31
CGI, Los
210 0 0 0 0 0
Angeles
211 Uzbekistan EOI, Tashkent 0 0 0 0 0
212 Venezuela EOI, Caracas 0 0 0 14 0
213 Vietnam EOI, Hanoi 0 0 0 0 0
CGI, Ho Chi
214 0 0 0 0 0
Minh City
215 Yemen EOI, Riyadh 0 0 0 0 0
216 Zambia HCI, Lusaka 0 0 0 0 0
217 Zimbabwe EOI, Harare 0 0 0 0 0
24Annexure-B
Data regarding data on action taken on unauthorized/illegal recruiting agents [2023 – 2025]
Sl. State/UT Number of ATR Submitted/FIR Number of Cases Number of
No. Complaints Registered by in which request Prosecution
State/UT Police for issue of Sanctions issued
prosecution
sanction after
investigation
received
2023 2024 2025 2023 2024 2025 2023 2024 2025 2023 2024 2025
Andaman 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
and
1.
Nicobar
Islands
Andhra 445 602 448 5 11 19 1 0 0 1 0 0
2.
Pradesh
Arunacha 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3.
l Pradesh
2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
4. Assam
6 5 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
5. Bihar
25Chandiga 3 9 80 0 0 37 0 0 0 0 0 0
6.
rh
Chhattisg 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
7.
arh
Dadra & 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Nagar
Haveli
8.
and
Daman &
Diu
4 92 153 0 0 34 0 11 9 0 11 9
9. Delhi
5 1 13 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
10. Goa
2 9 12 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 3
11. Gujarat
4 2 33 0 0 15 0 1 0 0 1 0
12. Haryana
Himachal 4 0 2 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
13.
Pradesh
Jammu & 1 0 4 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0
14.
Kashmir
Jharkhan 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
15.
d
26Karnatak 32 33 61 6 8 0 3 0 0 3 0 0
16.
a
110 277 238 87 197 158 7 1 0 7 1 15
17. Kerala
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
18. Ladakh
Lakshad 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
19.
weep
Madhya 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
20.
Pradesh
Maharash 6 14 22 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0
21.
tra
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
22. Manipur
Meghalay 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
23.
a
2 0 4 1 0 3 0 0 1 0 0 1
24. Mizoram
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
25. Nagaland
0 5 7 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
26. Odisha
Puducher 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
27.
ry
2756 18 80 0 38 69 0 0 0 0 0 0
28. Punjab
29. Rajasthan 35 87 97 0 0 4 2 0 0 2 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
30. Sikkim
Tamil 152 106 99 7 64 52 1 0 0 1 0 0
31.
Nadu
Telangan 132 96 111 35 17 47 0 0 0 0 0 0
32.
a
0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
33. Tripura
Uttarakha 0 5 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
34.
nd
Uttar 0 6 31 0 0 11 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
35.
Pradesh
West 5 10 35 2 2 12 0 0 0 0 0 0
36.
Bengal
1,006 1378 1541 147 343 465 15 14 10 15 14 28
Total
*****
28