New rules on labor migration
Romania's Government publishes a draft Emergency Ordinance to more strictly regulate the process through which foreigners are brought, placed and hired on the Romanian labor market.
Iulia Hau, 14.01.2026, 14:00
The Romanian Government has published a draft Emergency Ordinance to more strictly regulate the process through which foreigners are brought, placed and hired on the Romanian labor market. According to official statements by the labor minister, Florin Manole, one of the goals pursued is to reduce the risk of human trafficking: “We need greater regulation that should ensure protection against human trafficking, because this happens in some cases, there are people who are exploited, people who are brought from Southeast Asia and who do not know their rights, they have problems with the Romanian language obviously or the English language, which makes them more vulnerable. We need recruiters, agencies that should be more carefully monitored and more responsible in their actions.”
This proposal has the merit of being the first legal framework that explicitly regulates and authorizes the activity of agencies dealing in foreign labor placement. As journalistic investigations have shown, the legislative void has been used by agencies and agents suspected of human trafficking and labor exploitation.
Besides massive changes related to the recruitment and placement processes, the law proposes the possibility of extending the right to stay through work for foreigners currently staying illegally, who have not received a return decision. The Employers’ Confederation of Labor Importers has formulated amendments requesting the revision of some of the obligations imposed on agencies. Elena Panţiru, the organization’s vice president, argues that: “The legislators started from the assumption that we, the placement companies, are making the selection. No, we never make selection. It is always the employer who chooses the right people for what he or she needs. I don’t even make a pre-selection. We always accompany the employer to the foreigner’s country of origin, we provide all the logistics for testing. […] selection is exclusively the employer’s responsibility.”
Another problematic regulation from the Employers’ point of view is the condition that the employments should correspond to the professions found on a list of hard-to-fill vacancies, published by the Employment Agency and the Institute of Statistics, updated every six months. The expert claims that the process of selection, preparation of documents, obtaining a visa usually takes more than six months. If the occupation for which the steps were taken to bring the foreigner is no longer on the list following the biannual update, then the foreigner can no longer be brought to the country.
And these are not the only criticisms made: “In this ordinance, we, the placement agencies, who are ultimately trading companies, have the obligation to verify the employers for whom we bring foreigners, both at the workplace and at the accommodation place. This norm is very explicit, in the sense that it leaves no room for doubt, which I do not think is beneficial for us, nor for the employer, nor for the foreigners, nor for anyone. We become some sort of gendarmes and have to go and report after we see that the employer violates the obligations stipulated in the contract or that the place of accommodation is not compliant. So whose interests do I represent? What am I actually doing?”
Elena Panţiru claims that the agencies have neither the training nor the resources to carry out such controls. She also criticizes the provision by which the agencies can have their authorization revoked or part of the 200,000 euro deposit they are required to make to obtain the authorization can be executed for reasons over which they have no control: “The deposit is executed both for our actions and for actions that are not ours, for actions of foreigners, for example. If a foreigner fails, if he or she is not accepted at this visa interview, the agency is sanctioned. If the foreigners leave their work place, their accommodation place and go to any European country, although we do information campaigns and tell them very clearly that they have the right to visit, but they do not have the right to work, they do not have the right to stay there for more than 30 days, the agency is also sanctioned, although I may not have known anything about that foreigner, except when the employer informs me that the foreigner did not show up for work without a reason and then I realize that he or she went to another country”.
On the other hand, the Employers’ Confederation of Labor Importers praises the decision of the Romanian Government and the Labor Ministry to approve the new quota for 2026, of 90,000 new workers admitted to the labor market, as early as January 1. By way of comparison, last year’s quota was only operationalized on January 16, which led to numerous rejections of files. The Government also proposed that this number be flexible, with the possibility of being supplemented throughout the year through simple procedures. (LS)
