Names marked with an asterisk have been changed to protect their identities.

Bucharest, Romania – For six months, Douglas* worked hard in a restaurant in Bucharest, cooking more than 200 hamburgers in the kitchen every day.

But like many other foreign workers in Romania, he took a second job delivering takeaway food on his motorcycle to supplement his income.

On Sundays, on his day off at the restaurant, he wakes up at 7:30 a.m. in a room provided to him by his employer.

It’s crowded to say the least. Fourteen Sri Lankan men sleep in seven bunk beds, “like in a hospital,” he jokes.

Their jackets and towels hang on the edge of the bed. Douglas’ spacious green square backpack labeled “Bolt Food” lies on the floor.

He eats rice and lentils for breakfast before hopping on his motorcycle for a seven-hour shift delivering sushi and pizza to starving customers.

He delivers about 14 orders between 2 p.m. and 9 p.m.

Then he eats dinner – rice again, this time with chicken.

“The hardest thing for me is getting used to the idea because that’s not what I came for. But I can do it. I can try to get a good salary,” he said.

Every week he makes about 120 Romanian lei ($26) in profit as a driver. He pays 250 lei ($54) to rent the motorcycle and 30 lei ($6.50) for gas.

He came from Kandy, a lush plateau of tea plantations and Buddhist temples in the heart of Sri Lanka. Last November, he came across a job offer online to work as a housekeeper in a European Union country. Accommodation and food will be provided, the advertisement said.

The opportunity could lead to his dreams becoming a reality, he thought. His 12-year-old son – a cricket enthusiast – could eventually study in the UK.

He had tried to work abroad before, in Dubai, “but it was very expensive,” he said.

In order to secure the European job and the work permit, Douglas took out a loan of around 3,000 euros and paid it to a recruitment agency.

A year later, in a café in the center of Bucharest, he looks back at the WhatsApp conversations he had with the agent, a man from Sri Lanka.

“Things weren’t as they told me,” he said.

When he arrived in Romania, the job and salary were different than what was initially offered.

He had been promised 800 euros ($864) for a job as a housekeeper, not 500 euros ($540) for flipping burgers.

“I’m trapped. I can’t go back because I have to pay [off] “I’ve paid off the loan, but I earn so little that I don’t know how I’m going to pay it back,” he said with a tired smile.

Ali*, a robust 27-year-old who emigrated from Colombo with his brother at the end of July, rides for up to 15 hours a day.

The siblings had worked as mechanics at home, but “the pay was nothing,” Ali said.

Their father knew a Sri Lankan expatriate in Romania who found them cleaning jobs in Bucharest, but their work permits were revoked shortly after their arrival.

While they deal with a new round of paperwork, they deliver food by bike.

Food deliveries are a booming business in Romania.

Tazz, a Romanian company, and international companies such as Glovo, Bolt Food, FoodPanda and Takeaway are competing for hungry fingertips in the country’s major cities.

According to Glovo, which has 3,000 delivery drivers nationwide, a driver can earn about 23 lei per hour ($5).

Meanwhile, the number of Sri Lankans traveling abroad for work is increasing.

According to the Sri Lankan Ministry of Labor and External Employment, more than 300,000 people migrated in 2022. More than 200,000 emigrated between January and September this year.

Sri Lankans have left the island for several reasons – due to security concerns after the Easter Sunday bombings in 2019amid the COVID-19 pandemic and as a result of political and economic crises.

The people behind the 100,000 quota

Douglas, Ali and several others interviewed by Al Jazeera for this story are just some of the people who make up the quota of 100,000 work permits for non-EU workers set by the Romanian government in 2023, a figure that falls in 2023 will rise to 140,000 in 2024. to close employment gaps.

According to The Economist, the Eastern European country is transforming from a country of “emigrants” to a country of “immigrants”.

Most of Romania’s foreign workers, with the exception of Europeans, are Nepalese. With 15,807 people, Sri Lankans make up the second largest number of non-EU emigrants.

“It’s only been about a year that we’ve seen migrants from Southeast Asia delivering food on the streets of Bucharest,” said Maria-Luiza Apostolescu, a public policy researcher. “At first you could see them in the background in the kitchen.”

She said some come on student visas and deliver food part-time, while for others it is a part-time job.

However, she warned that there were no NGOs supporting “economic refugees”, partly due to a lack of funds.

“It is [also] It is difficult for Romanians to understand that other people come here to live a better life. We are [usually] those who emigrate.”

“You must ensure humane conditions for foreigners”

At the immigration office in Bucharest, an officer shouts to the crowd that has formed in various lines.

“If you don’t have an online appointment, leave the room!”

Lots of waiting young Asian men. There are also some families.

“Numerous vacancies were registered between January and August 2023,” said a spokesman for the Ministry of Labor, Solidarity and Social Solidarity, referring to positions such as couriers, construction workers, secretaries, kitchen helpers and security guards.

“This quota looks very good on paper, but if you cannot find Romanian workers, you have to ensure adequate conditions for foreigners,” said Radu Stochita, a Romanian journalist who has studied the plight of Nepalese workers.

Like Sri Lankans, many Nepalis pay exorbitant sums to recruitment agencies, take out loans and end up doing jobs that bear little resemblance to the ones they were offered.

“In some cases, they don’t even work for the company listed on the contract,” Stochita said. “The question is: Who gets this money?”

When asked by Al Jazeera about these high fees, a Ministry of Labor spokesperson said that the state does not impose payments on foreign workers beyond regular work permit fees or taxes

“The thousands of euros paid by workers represent external costs associated with recruitment firms and agencies,” they said.

A Sri Lankan from Kaluatara who paid about 3,500 euros to work in a kitchen in Bucharest said he felt cheated.

“Sometimes I feel like this is just a scam by the employer and the employment agency,” he said. “Before we come here, we don’t know anything about the working conditions, so we think it’s worth spending so much money and think we can pay off the debt within a year.”

Manil*, a 32-year-old chef who contacted a recruitment agency after seeing its advertisement on TV, said: “They asked me to chop onions and vegetables in a video and hired me. We all paid too much to come here.”

When he and five other Sri Lankans arrived at the hotel in Brasov where they were supposed to work as cooks, “it wasn’t normal,” he said ominously.

He said his boss would sexually abuse the workers.

“On the nights when we refused to go to his room, he punished us,” Manil said. “What to do?”

He left the job but doesn’t want to report it to the police.

“They are too afraid to report it,” said Loredana Urzica-Mirea, head of eLiberare, an organization fighting human trafficking and sexual exploitation in Romania.

eLiberare mediated a case in which Sri Lankans worked in “horrible” conditions at a meat factory, she said, but the employer denied any wrongdoing.

“The new law does not make it easier for them to change jobs,” she added.

In 2022, an emergency measure generally intended to protect employers means that foreign workers must be bound to a contract for at least a year. They must also obtain written permission from their employer if they want to change jobs.

Disappointed, Manil said he planned to travel to Italy in the hope that working conditions and pay would be better there.

“This is the only option we have left,” he said.