Romania decreases number of work permits for foreigners

The Romanian Government decided to reduce the quota of work permits for foreign citizen from 12,000 in 2007 to 10,000 in 2008, the Bucharest press reports, cited by Info-Prim Neo. According to the Romanian Office for Immigration, only 5,500 work permits were issued to foreigners last year. A number of 278 of these were given to Moldovans. A large number of permits were issued to Turkish and Chinese workers – 813 and 246 respectively. The foreigners worked mainly in the construction sector, production sphere, services and trade. The legislative document says that the Ministry of Labour, Family and Equality of Chances can work out special programmes to facilitate or restrain, depending on the case, the access of certain categories of foreign workers, in line with the demand on the labour market. At the same time, if the number of applications for new work permits is larger than the number fixed in the legislative document, it can be increased by Government decision under a justificatory statement, on the Ministry’s proposal. The substantiation note to the document says that the number of work permits will be decreased because the Government of Romania is drafting a plan of measures to bring home the Romanian workers from abroad and to maintain the Romanian workforce on the domestic market, and because the number of permits issued in 2007 was about twofold lower than planned.