Panaji, Oct 13 (IANS): Goa's commissionerate of Non Resident Indian (NRI) affairs Thursday said it will tie up with other central government agencies and Indian embassies to intervene in cases involving the state's expatriate workers in distress.

Commissioner of NRI Affairs Eduardo Faleiro, whose office looks after the well-being of Goan migrants, told reporters here that there were several cases where housemaids from Goa were harassed by their employers, mainly in the Gulf nations.

"We, along with the union ministry of overseas Indian affairs (MOIA) and our embassies abroad, will jointly tackle this menace," said Faleiro, a former union minister of state for external affairs.

Faleiro said facilities like boarding, lodging and emergency medical care for housemaids in distress would be provided in an expeditious manner.

He added that a specially appointed state level committee was probing unscrupulous recruiting agents who duped job seekers by charging them huge sums of money for jobs abroad.

"The committee has noted that against the 30 recruiting agents from Goa featuring on the website of the MOIA, the registration of only five such agents is valid as of today," Faleiro said.

Goa has a large expat population working mainly in the oil rich Middle East region as well as on board cruise liners and the merchant navy where the pay is manifold what one earns back home. This makes job-seekers, desperate to go abroad, vulnerable targets to rogue job recruiting agents who charge anywhere between Rs.50,000 and Rs.2 lakh for a job abroad.