Hundreds of workers from Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan are in for a real shock when they arrive in Romania and discover that the jobs for which they paid exorbitant sums to recruitment agencies in their country of origin do not actually exist, the publication said. press release of the Association of Labor Employers from Romania.

According to the quoted source, the situation escalated, people were simply abandoned at the airport without notifying any agency or employer.

“There were cases when more than 30 people stayed at the airport in one day. The main reason is work permits obtained by companies founded by foreign nationals. We are talking here about citizens of Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh, who, according to these reports, do not have a real job, but only a mechanism for attracting citizens to the country,” says Romulus Badea, vice president of the Association of Labor Employers. Importers.

According to him, it is simply a tool for immigration purposes and indirect human trafficking.

How Asian workers are cheated

“They come to Romania and create a company. With this company, I apply for work permits to the General Immigration Inspectorate, get those work permits, and then submit the documents to the consulate of the country in question,” he says.

People come for an interview, create files and get a visa.

“But when they arrive in the country, they actually find that they have nowhere to go, because the employer is actually an apartment company that does not have any contract for any work. That’s how I get to the airport and stay there,” Badea said.

Where is the problem?

Although work permits are issued for real jobs in Romania that cannot be filled by workers from the country, one of the problems is actually the lack of verification of the existence of these jobs and the indirect detection of these fraud networks, the Employers’ Association says.

Our experienced staffing agencies already know the factors that must be taken into account by the authorities to combat this phenomenon and have identified a number of measures in this regard.

“The fact that the companies in question have foreign shareholders, foreign administrators and are newly created with zero activity should be an alarm signal. Under these conditions, I believe that the employees of the General Inspectorate for Immigration, who see the data from the Trade Register, should investigate these cases and request additional documents,” Romul Badea adds.

What are the consequences of the phenomenon

The consequences of this phenomenon are catastrophic both for foreign workers and for the authorities, and not least for employers, says the patronage.

This is a vicious cycle that affects the labor market and blocks the ability of employers to access foreign labor, as these scams also unfairly occupy government-approved advertisements within the current quota of 100,000 foreign workers.

“It is such fraudulent situations that overload and block the General Immigration Inspectorate, the consulates and leave some people on the street who have just arrived in Romania, without housing, without food, without anything, in conditions where they do not leave the house for them,” he says Badea.

In addition, he said, for employers who want labor, this situation cuts work permits, which are issued within the approved quota of 100,000.

“I think there are hundreds of these foreign workers, poor people who come here just to go back to their country of origin. Intermediaries from the countries of origin benefit,” says Romul Badea.

What advice is offered to Romanian companies that need foreign workers

The employer reports these cases of fraud and advises Romanian companies approached by these companies founded and coordinated by foreign nationals to be very careful before agreeing to such cooperation, as they may unwittingly be involved in cases of human trafficking.

“The challenge is to carefully select the companies you work with. When you’re offered an offer that sounds too good to be true, unfortunately, it really isn’t. You can’t believe it costs you nothing to have someone bring your people into the country, let alone offer to pay the work permit fee. The question that arises here is simple: if I do not pay money for this transaction, do I remain a customer? Am I protected in any way? Can I have certain claims?” Romulus Badei concluded.