All have made Romania a paradise for illicit organizations that traffick in refugees from Asia and the Middle East on their way west. They bring hundreds of immigrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, and China desperate to get to the West. Once caught, the poor people cannot believe that they're not closer to their goal, in the Czech Republic or Poland as they had been led to believe. For all these people, Romania is a land of transit, a point of embarkation toward the west. Meanwhile, Romania has become a huge waiting room of clandestine international immigration.
Immigrants wait for months, even years, for an opportunity to pass to the other side.
And while waiting, many become a recruiting ground for organized crime in drug trafficking. Attempts by authorities to put an end to this phenomenon are also made more difficult by the fact that the Geneva convention protects many of clandestine immigrants. Fraudulent immigrants, caught in the act by border police, also know that when told they will be they will be repatriated to ask immediately for refugee status. And Romania must take their requests into consideration as required by law. As they await their opportunity to go west, some of the immigrants are recruited by local mafia or dedicate themselves to stealing, contraband, extortion, etc.