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Activists and migrants say a new programme to regulate the status of migrant workers in Romania is being used to deport those unaware they have already been issued with return orders.
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On May 11, Akila* walked into the Immigration Office in Cluj-Napoca, northwestern Romania, and approached the counter.
The 19-year-old from Sri Lanka was hopeful of legalising his status in the European Union country under a programme introduced the previous month to regulate the status of thousands of foreign workers in legal limbo.
It was the first Wednesday after the programme had come into effect, and the officials behind the counter claimed they weren’t ready. The programme was too fresh, the process not yet clarified, they said. Come back next week, Akila was told.
He did exactly that, but this time he was immediately led from the counter to a back room and then transported to the airport for a flight to Istanbul and then Sri Lanka, where he faces repaying the loans he took to finance his recruitment in Romania.
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