Romania found 3,340 foreign citizens illegally present on its territory last year, up 37 pct from 2016

The Romanian authorities have found 3,340 foreign non-EU citizens illegally present on its territory in 2017, up 37 percent compared to 2016, and refused entry at the external borders to morethan 5,000 foreign nationals, Eurostat data show.

In 2017, Romania has refused entry at the external borders to 5,305 persons, slightly below the number registered in 2016.

According to EU official data, Romania has also ordered to leave its territory to 1,975 foreign citizens in 2017 and has returned 1,815 persons to third countries following an order to leave.

In 2017, 618 780 non-EU citizens were found to be illegally present in the EU, down by 37 percent compared with one year before and by 71 percent when compared with the peak of 2015, when the total number of non-EU citizens found to be illegally present stood at 2.15 million.

“The EU member state which reported the largest number of non-EU citizens found to be illegally present in 2017 was Germany (156 710), followed by France (115 085), Greece (68 110), the United Kingdom (54 910) and Spain (44 625). These five Member States together accounted for 71% of all those found to be illegally present in the EU,” Eurostat said.

Romania’s government plans to increase quotas by 5,200 work permits for non-EU foreign workers in 2018, on high demand from local companies claiming they are affected by workforce crisis, according to a project released by the Labour Ministry.

Official data show the total number of work permits for foreign employees issued by Romanian authorities and still in use was 7,249 on March 1, 2018, up from 6,709 in December 2017 and 5,594 at the end of 2016.