The Sri Lankan Embassy in Moscow said that it has received complaints from Sri Lankans against fraudulent employment and education agencies in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lankans fly to Russia on student or visit visas seeking career opportunities and to migrate to European countries. In line with immigration conditions and regulations, non natives who travel to Russia on visit visas are not allowed to work within the validity period of their visas.
But in most instances, students are bamboozled by being sent on student or visit visas to have jobs with higher salaries and also assuring them to be facilitated to cross the borders to European countries.
The Russian authorities have detained 27 Sri Lankans in connection with fraudulent activities this year. Seventeen of them are reported to have been banished to Sri Lanka and 10 people are still in detention centres as lawsuits on them continue.
Large sums of money are charged by the agents from students as the trip expenditure. Their next step is to exploit and traffic them via state borders to countries, such as Ukraine and Belarus.
The victims are made to engage in illegal activities, including violation of immigration rules, illegal crossing of state borders, being illegally occupied as migrant workers following the expiry of visas and possessing forged student or employment visas.
The culprits fall into three major categories: bogus foreign employment and education agencies, Sri Lankan expatriates and some other organised groups.
The Russian law enforcement authorities have notified the Sri Lanka embassy in Moscow that a number of such offenders has been sentenced and fined.
The Sri Lankan embassy in Moscow has taken steps to keep the authorities informed about the incidents related to human trafficking.
The Foreign Employment Bureau set up an investigation unit last year to grapple with the issue.