Moldovan diplomats have been watched by Portuguese authorities for several years

The alleged involvement of members of the Moldovan diplomatic mission to Lisbon in fraudulent schemes of illegal migration has been under the scrutiny of the Portuguese authorities since 2007, announced Valeriu Turea, spokesperson for the Moldovan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at a briefing on Wednesday, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to Valeriu Turea, the four officials of the embassy – head of the chancellery Diana Popa, secretaries Natalia Oprea and Eduard Munteanu, and the mission's accountant Valentina Nicolaev – were recalled from offices back in October 2007. Same year, two weeks before that, ambassador Mihail Camerzan was subjected to disciplinary action in the form of severe reprimand “for disrespecting his professional duties”. According to the MFA spokesperson, criminal action couldn't be started against the ambassador because he was protected by his diplomatic immunity. Camerzan's term as ambassador expired on 14 October 2009 as his incumbency is supposed to end tomorrow. But it is not known whether Camerzan returned home or has the intention of doing that. According to the Portuguese media, the ambassador is denying the accusations against him. “Only proper investigations can determine how much truth and how much interpretation is in that story. But whichever the result of the investigation, we must admit that in the public perception such cases cannot have positive effects. Both internally and externally. And when I say externally, I mean in particular the impact such (cases) might have on Moldova's dialogue with the EU concerning easier travel requirements for the Moldovan citizens”. At the end of last week the Portuguese media revealed information accusing some officials of the Moldovan Embassy in Portugal of having links to criminal schemes of illegal immigration.