At least 8 million Romanians are working or living abroad (secretary of state says)

At least 8 million Romanians are currently working or living outside the country's borders and solutions will be for sure found to bring some of them back to Romania, Secretary of State with the Department for Romanians Everywhere Florin Carciu stated on Thursday.

"Today, according to the latest official data we have, we count 5.7 million Romanians abroad. This is an official figure that we got from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We certainly have at least 8 million. We have 500,000 Romanians in France alone, even if the French state says they are 106,000, in official figures. And there are also a few countries in Europe where we have a million or more Romanians. And we have another 150,000-200,000 Romanian who were not identified or counted here," Florin Carciu told a press conference organized by the National Trade Union Bloc (BNS), together with the Faire Mobilitaet network, the DGB trade union confederation and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.

He specified that the Romanian Government intends to support Romanians outside the borders and inside the borders.

"We will certainly find solutions to bring some of the 8 million Romanians we have abroad back home, to persuade them through measures to return home, to work in Romania. We will find solutions by equalizing salaries or approaching salaries they receive abroad, where they are today," the Secretary of State also said, while mainly referring to the workers in constructions or agriculture.

He said that "open discussions are taking place in all areas, in agriculture and constructions."

"Employers are not the ones who want to repatriate them because they need them there. I have been working in France for 50 years, I have experience in this field - and we need manpower there, there is a lack of manpower. Our duty is to find solutions. I am certain that together with the Romanian Government we will find them, we will convince Romanians abroad that they can return home and have a decent living here, of not at the same level as in the developed countries, at least close to that level," Florin Carciu said. AGERPRES