Shocking attack on guest worker in our neighbour – Caught on camera!

A 20-year-old Romanian man has been placed in 30-day pre-trial detention for assaulting an Asian guest worker in Bucharest. The case is being investigated as bodily harm committed with racist and xenophobic motives, according to Romanian news portal Hotnews.ro.

The incident took place on Tuesday evening and was recorded by the attacker himself on his phone. The footage shows him approaching a Bangladeshi food delivery cyclist waiting at a red light and punching him in the face without warning, the portal writes. When the victim asked why he was attacked, the man called him a “negro”, told him he was the problem, and ordered him to “go back to his own country”, labelling him an “intruder” in Romania.

According to Bucharest police, an off-duty officer happened to witness the scene. Responding to the victim’s cries for help, he intervened and detained the assailant as he tried to flee. The shocking video of the racist attack was later shared on Facebook by Marian Godina, a well-known police officer from Brașov with 650,000 followers, who often comments on social issues.

The case comes shortly after Godina filed a criminal complaint against Dan Tanasă, MP and spokesperson of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), a far-right party in government circles often described as extremist. Tanasă had encouraged his followers on Facebook not to accept parcels delivered by non-Romanian couriers and spoke out against the “import of unskilled Asian and African workers”. The National Council for Combating Discrimination has since launched an investigation into his statements.

Guest workers in Hungary’s service sector as well

Hungary has also seen a growing number of foreign workers, not only in industry but in the service and hospitality sectors as well. Recently, a bakery in Szombathely’s main square hired two Filipino assistants, a development that locals considered unusual but which is increasingly common in Budapest and bigger cities like Pécs.

In many restaurants and cafés in Hungary’s larger cities, bartenders and waiters now communicate mainly in English, while in Budapest’s food delivery sector, Hungarian workers have all but disappeared. Although the phenomenon is still new in smaller towns, it is likely to spread further.

Official figures are unclear, but Hungary’s Central Statistical Office (KSH) estimated that around 93,000 guest workers were employed in the country in 2023. Government data shows that this number has already risen to about 120,000 in 2024.

Read more about guest workers in Hungary on Daily News Hungary!

Read also:

• Two Filipino guest workers sue Hungary over deportation orders
• Guest workers flood Hungary’s service sector