This growth is putting pressure on the agency, which is already suffering from a severe staff shortage, forcing an extremely limited number of employees to handle a massive workload.
Diana Salkutan, State Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, stated during parliamentary hearings that the entire volume of paperwork is handled by just 58 officers from the inspectorate. The situation is even more critical in the area of preventing and combating illegal residence, as well as on-site inspections, where the task of countering risks to public order and national security falls to a staff of just 35 people.
“As a result, each immigration service officer handles an average of about 1,353 active cases, which amounts to more than 110 cases per month, including verifying all the information necessary to issue these documents,” Salcuțan said.
Despite these constraints, between January 1, 2025, and June 30, 2026, the Inspectorate imposed thousands of sanctions, issued 955 return orders, and 2,182 decisions revoking the right of residence.
The agency forecasts that, if the trends of the first half of 2026 continue, its annual caseload will increase by approximately 35% compared to last year. Ministry officials warn that without prompt intervention and additional budgetary funding to recruit new staff, security and effective control over migration flows will be jeopardized, as current human resources are objectively unable to cope with the actual situation on the ground.
“Strengthening the General Inspectorate for Migration, particularly by increasing human and operational resources, is a mandatory and essential condition for ensuring effective control over migration within the territory of the Republic of Moldova,” concluded Diana Salcuțan.
Fictitious Registration and Unacceptable Living Conditions
The hearings were organized at the request of MP Marina Morozova following inspections conducted by the General Inspectorate for Migration at a facility in the municipality of Chisinau. A total of 102 citizens of Bangladesh and Nepal were found on site; although they were employed by nine Moldovan companies, they were all housed on the premises of a single firm.
When these individuals entered the country to obtain residence permits for employment purposes, their employers provided a fictitious address in the city of Criuleni—in an apartment building where 11 residential units had been purchased, though none were occupied at the time. In this way, they illegally changed the place of residence of these foreign nationals, moving them to the municipality of Chisinau to the specified property, where they were provided with unacceptable living conditions.
