Conned, exploited, trapped: Romania’s new flock of Asian delivery riders

The jobs and conditions that await Sri Lankans barely resemble the opportunities offered to them by shady agents.

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

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

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

On Sundays, his day off from the restaurant, he wakes up at 7.30am in a room provided by his employer.

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