Driver visas in Romanian row
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by Karen Miles • The British Embassy in Bucharest has asked the Home Office if it should continue to issue visas to Romanian drivers working for UK hauliers.
This follows confusion at the embassy after British drivers rang saying Romanians driving British-registered vehicles on visas are doing so illegally and are only being hired because they will work for lower pay than their UK counterparts.
But several British hauliers have told the embassy that their businesses will collapse or they will transfer to Romania if they cannot use cheap and plentiful Romanian labour.
Consul Maurice Harper has asked the Home Office if non-EU embassies have the authority to issue visas, or if Romanian drivers working for British cornpaflies require work permits.
The consul's request follows recent domestic clarification when the Department of Employment said non-EU dri
vers working for British companies are "very unlikely" to be doing so legally((..M6-12 Aug).
A number of UK owner-drivers complained to the Bucharest embassy in August over this issue and the embassy stopped issuing visas for a week until it bowed to pressure from British hauliers. "I got calls from irate British companies saying they couldn't get British drivers to this part of the world," says Harper. "Companies even threatened to de-register their vehicles onto Romanian plates. All of this is very difficult for us to check." The Home Office says it would have passed the query on to the Foreign Office.
Romanian, Turkish, Bulgarian, Hungarian and Polish owner drivers can legitimately seek loads to and from the UK but they cannot be employed directly by a British firm without a work permit—and the DoE says non-EU lorry drivers would be extremely unlikely to qualify for one.