“The platform is down: many foreign workers left without residence rights

In April, the Romanian Government adopted a new ordinance regarding the recruitment and placement of foreign workers, following months of negotiations with stakeholders across society.

Iulia Hau, 14.10.2026, 14:00

Although the ordinance entered into force on April 27, the hiring of foreigners is practically blocked: the WorkinRomania platform has not been functioning since August 15—meaning for nearly seven weeks. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of foreigners thus risk losing their right of residency. Georgiana Bădescu, coordinator of the Migration and Asylum Program at the Legal Resources Center, explains where the deadlock stems from.

“Now, unfortunately, we are in an abyss when it comes to putting the provisions of the ordinance into practice. The WorkinRomania platform is blocked due to a lawsuit at the Court of Appeal regarding the suspension of the order on the list of deficit occupations, the case being between the Employers’ Organization of Labor Importers and the Ministry of Labor.”

PIFM is the acronym for the Employers’ Organization of Labor Importers (Patronatul Importatorilor de Forță de Muncă), the organization that requested a court-ordered suspension of the list of deficit occupations. The list included 289 professions. The organization considers it an abusive restriction because it limits the professions for which foreign workers can be brought in. Their argument: the Ministry supposedly chose the professions restrictively, without a real market analysis, affecting companies’ right to recruit according to actual market needs. Georgiana Bădescu continues:

“Due to this suspension obtained by PIFM in court, the WorkinRomania platform has been blocked since August 15. Where does this situation leave us? It severely affects every migrant worker, because there are multiple situations where a migrant worker has entered, will enter, or is entering—as we speak—into involuntary illegal residency, due to these bureaucratic problems, due to this lawsuit, and because there are no guarantees regarding their rights. Persons whose documents will expire—and here I am referring to the residency permit, which can expire at any time—I am referring to the 90-day period granted to foreigners to change their employer, I am referring to those who arrived with a work visa whom the first employer no longer wants, because we also have this situation—all these people will enter illegal residency through no fault of their own, without any kind of guarantee, and without any extension of their right of residency existing.”

The problem of migrants ending up in illegal residency through no fault of their own is not new. The press in Romania and abroad, as well as human rights organizations, have pointed this out repeatedly. To respond to this issue, the Government ran a two-month regularization program this year for migrants in this situation. Following it, 3,666 people regained their legal residency rights, and 112 were forced to leave the country because they did not meet the conditions for enrollment in the program.

Experts believe that the number of people who presented themselves during the program was small compared to the actual number of potential beneficiaries. They say many migrants did not come forward out of fear that they wouldn’t qualify and would risk being forcibly returned to their countries of origin. Georgiana Bădescu, from the Legal Resources Center, points out:

“The timeframes are such that they place the migrant in a situation of involuntary, non-attributable illegal stay; consequently, the Romanian legislator needs to step in and provide certain guarantees. The only thing we have secured so far is a statement from the General Inspectorate for Immigration which assures us that the principle of proportionality will be applied when examining each individual case, but that is far from sufficient. At present, if a migrant falls into a state of illegal stay due to bureaucratic bottlenecks and court proceedings, and is then stopped on the street, he or she will be issued a return decision and will be forced to leave for their country of origin. We are talking about people with loans, people acting in good faith, individuals who have held legal residency in Romania for over four years and who will find themselves in a state of illegal stay simply because the online platform isn’t working. So we are entitled to ask: where is the proportionality? Where is the respect for migrants’ rights? Because, in this situation, a violation of their rights is clearly taking place.”

The Center for Legal Resources has addressed a public letter to the Ministries of Internal Affairs and Labor, the General Inspectorate for Immigration, and the National Employment Agency, calling for the system to be adapted to the current situation and for guarantees to be provided to foreign nationals. At the same time, Georgiana Bădescu criticizes certain amendments made to the ordinance by the Chamber of Deputies’ Labor Committee, arguing that they contradict the very reasons for which the ordinance was adopted.

“The Labor Committee’s amendments concern fees imposed exclusively on foreigners, a provision that is discriminatory in itself, because you cannot single out a foreign worker for a fee based expressly on their foreign status as opposed to a Romanian employee; I am referring to the fact that this leaves loopholes for agencies and employers to charge fees to migrants, as any such loophole allows an agency to continue charging the worker. This wording regarding ‘consultancy fees’ will be exploited by the private sector, we know this from both past and present experience, as there are already instances where agencies demand fees from migrants, as well as the security deposit payable to the state. They do not want to keep the provision requiring wages to be paid exclusively via bank card.”

Paying wages exclusively via bank card would be a significant guarantee for migrants, she explains. It would help prove unpaid wages in labor disputes. This is particularly important because few migrants can afford a lawyer to represent them in court. (VP, LS)