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

The home of an American man who was shot dead while fraudulently crossing into Israel suggest he was a victim of a work fraud.

Thomas Gabriel Perera was killed by Israeli security forces by the borders with Israel on 10 February.

He was lured to Jordan by the promise of a rewarding career, and when it did not materialise he tried to enter Israel as he was told he could get work that, his relatives told the BBC.

Studies of Indians falling for employment schemes and illegally entering different places to look for job have become extremely popular.

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

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

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 pounds to an agent before they left India, and paid an additional$ 600 after reaching Jordan on a tourist visa.

But when the two gentlemen arrived in Jordan’s investment capital Amman in first February, they were told by the representative that there were no employment available.

The agent finally suggested they may consider illegally crossing into Israel, claiming there were plenty of options there.

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

” We were taken in a vehicle. It was a long length. We got into the car at 2pm and reached the place merely around evening. Then we were made to move several miles along a beach. It was while walking in the dark that we were shot,” said Mr Charlas.

The BBC has seen a email sent to Perera’s home by the Indian ambassador in Jordan. It states that” safety forces tried to stop them but they did not listen to the warning, the soldiers opened fire on them”.

” One gun hit Mr Thomas]Perera] in his mind and he passed ahead on the spot.’ ‘

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

” I was walking quietly behind the others in the dark… That was when the gun hit me and I lost consciousness. I had no hint what happened to Thomas,” he said.

The BBC has asked India’s international department and Jordanian officials for comment on Mr Charlas ‘ argument.

Mr Charlas said he was eventually taken to a hospital for treatment and then moved between various Jordanian government agencies before being transferred to jail, where he was kept for 18 weeks.

While in prison, he managed to contact his family and told her what had happened, and his wife contacted American embassy leaders.

Mr Charlas was deported to India on 28 February.

Perera’s brain is still in Jordan. In response to BBC questions, India’s international 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 weeks for the process of documents and other items to get completed”, said Randhir Jaiswal, director for the foreign government.

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 federal warnings, some Indians are also falling victim to job scams and taking the risk of entering countries improperly to get work, say observers.

” The modus operandi is to get a visitor card for one state and then provide the neighbouring state”, said Ajith Kolassery, the CEO of Norka, the Kerala government’s office overseeing movement.

” No state will embrace unlawful entry. We have been constantly issuing recommendations to people to be wary of work rackets, but they are also 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 even paid money to officials and were cheated. It’s the fight to get better wages]that is driving this ]”, he said.

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