India's government is set to investigate claims that a registered recruitment agency falsely advertised nearly 300 jobs in a Bahrain hospital.

Labour Ministry and Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) officials earlier warned jobseekers not to fall prey to bogus adverts in newspapers offering work in Manama.

It came following the publication of an advert in last month's Malayala Manorama's Kannur edition in northern Kerala claiming that the American Mission Hospital (AMH) was recruiting nearly 300 staff.

The advert said 40 vacancies for university-qualified nurses with salaries of BD400, 100 for general nurses with BD300, five X-ray technicians with BD200 and 20 ambulance drivers with BD180 were available.

Thirty vacancies for security guards with salaries of BD150, 40 for ward boys with BD130 and 40 for cleaners with BD80 were also reportedly up for grabs.

AMH officials later confirmed the advert was fake and that the hospital did not have any recruitment agencies in India.

News of the probe comes after it emerged that advertisers JCG Associates is registered with the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs.

On its website, the company claims to be a leading manpower agency based in Karnataka, providing specialised services for the healthcare, oil and gas, information technology, construction and hospitality sectors.

It boasts clients in Bahrain, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and Europe and lists Canute D'Souza as its operations manager.

An Indian Embassy spokesman yesterday confirmed that it had forwarded a complaint about the scam to the higher authorities.

'This is particularly serious because the agency in question is registered with the Indian government,' he said.

'So we've given this matter high priority and if found guilty the agency stands to lose its licence and face criminal charges.

'The embassy has forwarded the complaint with details to the ministry, Karnataka Chief Secretary (because the agency is registered in the state), as well as the Protector of Emigrants in Delhi and Kerala.'

The GDN was earlier invited to an interview after responding to the advert pretending to be someone enquiring about the post of a university-qualified nurse for her sister.

Selected candidates were asked to pay Rs45,000 (BD372) to be posted at the hospital, though no guarantee was given that those who pass the interview, would get the job.

A woman, who introduced herself as Smitha, claimed the agency had received around 150 applications for the interview and that representatives from the hospital would also attend.

However, when the GDN tried to contact the agency yesterday, the person who answered the phone repeatedly hung up after learning the call was from Bahrain.

AMH general practitioner Dr Babu Ramachandran earlier revealed he had been bombarded with calls from people in Bahrain who were asked by relatives in India to enquire about the vacancies.

Chief medical officer Dr George Cheriyan also earlier warned people not to be fooled by such scams.-TradeArabia News Service