Trying to make a buck of the brain drain

Ever since inflation and the dollar shortage spiked in the country, there were others who made a killing using the current situation. It was the migration consultancy firms that assured safe migration to western countries under various visa schemes.

Many, particularly youngsters are unhappy with the current state of the country and willing to leave on the basis that there is no future for them. An official attached to a leading consultancy firm in Colombo said his firm received over a thousand applicants in the last three weeks and was forced to put on hold accepting fresh applicants due to the overwhelming number of applications.

As the brain drain continues from the country, there are fraudsters and shady firms also making use of the situation.

Short ly after the US government announced on Friday that registration for the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program for 2023 (DV-2023), popularly known as the visa lottery, will officially open next week, there were calls from dubious callers offering to assist in applying for this scheme.

One caller said it would take just Rs 400 to complete the documentation services which they provide to check his luck at the visa lottery.