Indian killed while entering Israel was victim of job scam, family says

The family of an Indian man who was shot dead while illegally crossing into Israel say he was a victim of a job scam.

Thomas Gabriel Perera was killed by Jordanian security forces by the border with Israel on 10 February.

He was lured to Jordan by the promise of a lucrative job, and when it did not materialise he tried to enter Israel as he was told he could find work there, his family told the BBC.

Reports of Indians falling for employment scams and illegally entering other countries to look for work have become increasingly common.

Perera, 47, had been accompanied by his brother-in-law Edison Charlas, who was injured in the shootout. Mr Charlas was treated in hospital and spent a fortnight in prison before he was repatriated to India.

The two men were from the southern Indian state of Kerala where they worked as auto-rickshaw drivers.

An agent had promised them they could get blue-collar jobs in Jordan earning 350,000 rupees ($4,000; £3,110) a month.

Mr Charlas told the BBC he paid 210,000 rupees to an agent before they left India, and paid an additional $600 after reaching Jordan on a tourist visa.

But when the two men arrived in Jordan’s capital city Amman in early February, they were told by the agent that there were no jobs available.

The agent then suggested they should try illegally crossing into Israel, claiming there were plenty of opportunities there.

On 10 February, Mr Charlas and Perera joined a group that drove for hours to Jordan’s border with Israel.

“We were taken in a car. It was a long distance. We got into the car at 2pm and reached the location only around midnight. Then we were made to walk several kilometres along a coastline. It was while walking in the dark that we were shot,” said Mr Charlas.

The BBC has seen a letter sent to Perera’s family by the Indian embassy in Jordan. It states that “security forces tried to stop them but they did not listen to the warning, the guards opened fire on them”.

“One bullet hit Mr Thomas [Perera] in his head and he passed away on the spot.”

Mr Charlas, however, disputed this account and said there was “no such warning (from the guards). They just shot.”

“I was walking slowly behind the others in the dark… That was when the bullet hit me and I lost consciousness. I had no clue what happened to Thomas,” he said.

The BBC has asked India’s foreign ministry and Jordanian authorities for comment on Mr Charlas’ allegation.

Mr Charlas said he was later taken to a hospital for treatment and then moved between several Jordanian government offices before being transferred to prison, where he was kept for 18 days.

While in prison, he managed to contact his wife and told her what had happened, and his wife contacted Indian embassy officials.

Mr Charlas was deported to India on 28 February.

Perera’s body is still in Jordan. In response to BBC queries, India’s foreign ministry said they were working to bring the body back to India as soon as possible.

“I am told that it will take one or two days for the process of documentation and other things to be completed,” said Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson for the foreign ministry.

On Monday, Shashi Tharoor, the member of parliament representing Perera’s constituency Thiruvananthapuram, said that members of the Indian embassy in Jordan had verified the victim’s identity and that the process of transportation of the body had begun.

Despite numerous government warnings, many Indians are still falling prey to job scams and taking the risk of entering countries illegally to find work, say observers.

“The modus operandi is to get a tourist visa for one country and then enter the neighbouring country,” said Ajith Kolassery, the CEO of Norka, the Kerala government’s department overseeing migration.

“No country will accept illegal entry. We have been consistently issuing advisories to people to be wary of job rackets, but they are still going.”

In recent years hundreds of Indians have been rescued from scam centres in Cambodia and other parts of South East Asia. They were trafficked to the centres after they were lured overseas by promises of good jobs.

Scores of Indian nationals were also tricked into fighting for Russia in the war with Ukraine after they were offered fake jobs and opportunities to study abroad.

The 100 Indians who were deported from the US last month after being accused of entering the country illegally had also been lured by the hope of a better life, pointed out Irudaya Rajan, who chairs the International Institute of Migration and Development in Thiruvananthapuram.

“They also paid money to agents and were cheated. It’s the struggle to get better wages [that is driving this],” he said.

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