Aizawl, Jun 11 (PTI) Mizoram Chief Minister Lalduhoma on Tuesday urged the youths of the state to prepare themselves to work in foreign nations, claiming that the country's "poor" economy was responsible for "high" unemployment rate.

While inaugurating Zofa Agency, a Union Ministry of External Affairs-approved private placement agency in Aizawl, the CM said job-seekers should focus on skill development and not shy away from even low-paying work abroad.

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"The unemployment rate in the country is high because of the country's poor economy," Lalduhoma said.

"Our government is working on identifying opportunities to send Mizo youths to work in Taiwan, the United Kingdom and the southern part of India," the chief minister said.

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To tackle unemployment problems and to ensure that the youths of the state find jobs outside it, the Mizoram Private Placement Agencies (Regulation) Act was passed in 2015, he said.

Under this Act, 27 private placement agencies were issued licenses to send unemployed youths for jobs outside the state, he said.

However, the licenses of such agencies were cancelled this year for sending youths to foreign countries beyond the ambit of the Act, the CM said.

Lalduhoma said that 29 people were arrested for sending unemployed youths to such foreign countries.

Police said that more than 30 Mizo youths have been rescued from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Oman recently.

Efforts are on to rescue three Mizo women stranded in Syria, they said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)