THE 49 Bangladeshis rescued by the Indian Coast Guard and then handed over to Bangladesh authorities by the BSF personnel are the latest victims of a massive swindle by fake recruiting agents thriving on the gullibility and desperation of people seeking jobs abroad. It's another tragic tale of unemployed young men taking the plunge into certainty, and ending up in the deep sea.

The saddest part of the story is that nearly 300 of them drowned in the sea as they were intercepted by the Thai police who seized their trawlers, took the engines off, and let the vessels carrying them drift into the deep sea. The Thai police authorities of course failed to show the slightest concern for the lives of Bangladeshi job seekers who had unfortunately ended up on the Thai coast. So, 300 lives have been lost because the desperate job seekers did not suspect any foul play when their alleged recruiters had promised to take them to Malaysia.

Now, this not the first time that job seekers died in such unfortunate circumstances. Quite a few incidents took place in the past, which prove that a section of highly unscrupulous people, masquerading as recruiting agents, are taking advantage of the vulnerability and desperation of Bangladeshi job seekers. While these young men usually are treated very harshly when they are identified by foreign authorities as illegal immigrants or intruders, their recruiters never come to their rescue. They either die or, if they are lucky enough, return home empty handed.

The question is, how long will this continue? How long will the job seekers fall prey to swindlers? On this particular occasion, 49 of them were lucky enough to be rescued by the Indian Coast Guard, but 300 others perished. And it seems nobody is responsible for what is goingon in the name of providing jobs abroad.

True, the job seekers are often gullible enough to fall into the recruiters' trap. But that alone cannot alter the truth that little is being done to bring the fake recruiters to justice. Obviously, with serious effort it should not be difficult to find out the fake recruiters. On the preventive side, the campaign for alerting the potential job seekers against the cheats has to be intensified at the local community levels. Social groups and NGOs can come forward to help the victims get legal assistance. Finally, as we have said several times in the past, the whole business of recruitment abroad has to be made transparent within a legal framework. All sorts of illegal, underhand dealing in this area will have to be checkmated with an appropriate action programme.