“The Migrant” business

Over the past six months, Rise reporters have infiltrated the underground world of an industry that, for the past two years, has been making hundreds of millions of euros by trafficking Asian citizens seeking a better life in Europe.

Since 2022, Romania has allowed 100,000 foreign workers to enter the country annually for employment. However, the mechanisms facilitating their arrival have already been deeply corrupted. Many end up homeless, while others are smuggled in trucks by traffickers and transported to other European countries.

We interviewed victims and heard harrowing stories, investigated the companies involved in this illicit trade, and obtained testimonies from insiders. Our findings revealed that Romania hosts organized crime networks that include former employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, businesspeople with criminal records, and even politicians. This web of interests and criminal groups extends beyond Romania’s borders, supplying multinational companies with illegally trafficked foreign workers.

In recent days, the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) carried out several raids and arrests in Caraș-Severin and Timiș counties. According to prosecutors, the investigation targets the illegal introduction of foreign workers—primarily from Pakistan and Bangladesh—into Romania under the guise of work visas, with the real intention of facilitating their passage into the Schengen Area.

Among those detained by DIICOT is a former officer of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who prosecutors accused of being one of the leaders of the investigated groups. Just two months ago, this same former officer—who had served in the secret intelligence unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (DGIPI, also known as “2.15”)—gave us an extensive interview, in which he denounced the very mafia-like practices that he is now being accused of by prosecutors.

“There is a human trafficking mechanism based on work permits,” explained the former officer, who added that foreign recruitment firms have a vested interest in bringing individuals to Romania, some of whom—according to their investigations—pose security risks, including potential terrorist threats in Europe.

Some of these recruitment companies do not actually provide legitimate workers but instead exploit the work visa system for human trafficking.

The mechanism is straightforward, according to the same former officer—now among those arrested by prosecutors.

“People who want to enter Europe pay these intermediaries, who then pay Romanian recruitment companies. These companies do not engage in real recruitment; they traffic people. They manipulate the local economy by identifying businesses in need and supplying them with ‘free’ workers just to secure work permits. In reality, this is not legitimate recruitment.”

Coming Soon on Rise Project – An in-depth investigative series exposing the dark world of migrant trafficking and the underground war between criminal groups making hundreds of millions of euros in profit.

ARTICLE PUBLISHED WITH THE SUPPORT OF JOURNALISMFUND.EU