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PM Orban: About 80,000-90,000 Romanians could go to work abroad in the coming period
“About 80,000-90,000 people are likely to leave the country. I have no record of those who left. We have no legal leverage to prevent Romanian citizens from being employed by companies from other countries. At present, one million work contracts have been suspended, and 300,000 have been terminated in Romania,” Orban said, according to Stiri.tvr.ro. Prime Minister Ludovic Orban on Friday stated that the law doesn't forbid Romanians to leave to work abroad, but it's important that they observe the rules of prevention so that they don't get infected with COVID-19.
"The crazy thing is not that Romanians want to leave abroad to work. The crazy thing is that they did it without observing the rules. After we saw what happened yesterday in Cluj, we took the right measures immediately. The Ministry of Transport issued an order that regulates the manner in which these approvals for flights are being given by the Civil Aeronautical Authority. Moreover, we regulated how people should travel from their homes to the airport, and also the waiting conditions. This is an order that we have issued and, if it's not published yet, it will be soon. We have also ordered law enforcement and each perfect, especially in the counties where there are such airports, to prepare special measures. And we could see the difference today in Cluj. We saw how people waiting and that there is a clear difference between how they crowded yesterday and how their departures have been being organised today," the PM told private television broadcaster Antena 1.
Despite suspending all flights to and from countries with many cases of COVID-19 infections, Romania has allowed seasonal workers to leave the country.
As many as 280 seasonal workers left this Friday from the Sibiu International Airport to Baden Baden, Germany, after Thursday, 150 left for Dusseldorf, Germany, spokesperson for the Sibiu Prefecture Andreea Stefan said Friday.
Other flights to Germany are scheduled for the next nine days, according to the information provided by the spokeswoman for the Sibiu airport Alexandra Pacurar.
Eight chartered flights were scheduled on Friday for takeoff from Otopeni Airport, three of them for the transport of Romanian workers to Germany, according to the spokesperson of the Bucharest Airports National Company, Valentin Iordache.
The flights were to Madrid, Barcelona, Athens, Stockholm, Malmo, Hamburg, Nurenberg and Dusseldorf.
Secretary of State Raed Arafat explained on Saturday that the departure of Romanians to work in Germany was made following diplomatic demands. Arafat acknowledged that the authorities were unprepared because "no one believed that 2,000 Romanians would be called in a single day."
He specified that the people were not tested on leaving for COVID-19 in Romania but that upon returning to the country, the workers will go into quarantine.
About 2,000 people from Transylvania and Moldova were left by bus on Thursday in the parking lot in front of the "Avram Iancu" Cluj International Airport to go on charter flights to Germany, to work in agriculture.
Seasonal Romanian workers help with harvesting spring crops, despite the closure of borders due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to the German DPA news agency. They are going to help harvest white asparagus as well as other crops.