Bengaluru: Shady recruiting agencies in Bengaluru are taking advantage of the growing demand for blue-collar jobs in Europe, as the working class looks for employment beyond the Gulf countries.

Under the guise of providing work visas, these fly-by-night operators are scamming jobseekers out of lakhs of rupees and shutting up shop within months.

While people in Karnataka’s tier-2 and tier-3 cities continue to gravitate towards Gulf countries for employment opportunities, those in Bengaluru are eyeing jobs in European countries like Poland, Hungary, Luxembourg and Austria, according to industry insiders.

“The Gulf was popular among Bengalureans about a decade ago, but in the last eight-odd years, there hasn’t been much improvement in the standard of living of blue-collar immigrants in the

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