’What’s written in small font is not even important…’ – carefully read the employment contract for working abroad

International Center ’La Strada’ returns with the second stage of the informative campaign aimed towards citizens of the Republic of Moldova, women and men, who are seeking employment abroad.

Inspired by the calls registered by the Safe Migration and Anti-Trafficking Hotline in the spring of this year, the video we are releasing today comes to expose the main mistakes that Moldovan citizens, who become victims of dishonest intermediary agents, commit.

Without judging or blaming them, we want people to remember at least one thing: every word from an agreement that they sign is important, whether it is written in large or small font. In their desperation, Moldovan citizens sign an employment contract in a rush, they take upon themselves commitments without reading through them properly. The Safe Migration and Anti-Trafficking Hotline team as well as the police and other authorities have registered hundreds of cases in which people had to pay back great amounts of money to the intermediary firm, they have pledged their homes and households, they had to pay back debts they didn’t know they had. This happened firstly because of the serious lacks that the Republic of Moldova registers in the context of the regulation of the legal framework for the activity of intermediary agencies. But the spirit of vigilance of each of us shouldn’t be ignored either. In any confusing situation, in order to avoid the risk of an illegal employment abroad and the consequences that could follow, call the Safe Migration and Anti-Trafficking Hotline 0 800 77777.  

Following the previous stage of the campaign (march- June 2019), in a qualitative report of the phone calls received by the hotline, we described in great detail the risks that a Moldovan citizen takes upon himself when he decides to emigrate illegally, the rationale behind his decision, but also the methods of manipulation that intermediary employment agents use to recruit people to work abroad. The full version of the report ‘Migration of citizens of the Republic of Moldova for work purposes- Risks associated with human trafficking and forced labour - Conclusions and observations post-national information campaign’ can be found here (English version).

The Campaign is carried out in partnership with the General Inspectorate of Border Police of the Republic of Moldova, the International Organization for Migration, Mission to Moldova within the project ”Increasing the accessibility of the risk group to information on safe migration and the danger of trafficking in persons” with the financial support of the US Embassy in Chisinau.