The law authorities revealed more irregularities in the activity of the individual enterprise STM Acord from Chisinau dealing with the students’ employment in the United States, on the basis of Work and Travel program.

The representatives of MAI together with those of the Chamber of Licensing made a control of the individual enterprise STM Acord headquartered in Chisinau, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. This enterprise, aiming at increasing the rate of the financial profit, extended its illicit activity network through four branches placed in different sectors of the capital, the police said. Following the control made, the law authorities settled that these branches were not registered by the authorized bodies.

At the same time, they settled the agency illicitly takes 1200 lei (over one hundred dollars) from each student – as an advance payment for the intermediary services, until the individual contract of labour is signed, or till the entry visa is open for the employing country.

The Chamber of Licensing decided, following the control, to take the decision of suspending the licence of STM ACORD with the temporary suspension of their activity, by the moment a final decision is reached.

Ultimately, the information regarding the illicit activity of this enterprise was presented to the officials of the US Embassy in Moldova to take the necessary measures and redirect the students to other companies activating within legal terms.

Currently, the enterprise activates and the decision of suspension will be taken by the court instance, STM ACORD Director Lilian Florea has said, contacted by BASA-press. “The materials are in the court and only this authority can decide over the suspension of our activity. We cannot give any comments on the situation until the decision is announced”, the director said.

The common operations of the police and the Embassy will allow the prevention and stopping the illegal activities of the economic agents that make abuse of the programs held by the US State Department, aiming at obtaining profit, thus preventing the tentative of illegal migration of the Moldovan citizens. In line with some complaints from the students, the US Embassy decided not to collaborate with nine Work and Travel companies, among which: Acord NGO, ASET, Association for Youth Collaboration (ACT), Center for Transparency and Democracy (CTD), Echitatea, Pro-Spiritus (YMCA), SEUC, Studitierra and World Travel. The interdiction is not permanent. The companies will be able to request visa permits next year, conditionally.

In 2007, about 20%of the visa owners within Work and Travel program did not return from the United States, and about 42% of the students came back long after the end of the program.  // BASA-Press



Publication date: 13 March 2008   

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