Romanian ‘NGO’ scams DUO
A Romanian organisation helped students get fictitious work so that they could apply for study grants in the Netherlands. That was uncovered by Romanian journalists from PressOne.
‘Romanian NGO scams DUO’, is written above an article about it by the Groningen UKrant. But the Romanian students themselves also lose out in cooperating with GCRS, a dubious organisation that would help them get study financing.
It works as follows. The student’s family donates to GCRS, which transfers the money to the student as a salary, supposedly for freelance journalism work. That ‘salary’ allows the student to apply for student loans from DUO. The student deposits the salary back to their own family, which can use it to make another donation to GCRS, and so on. Until GCRS stops paying the bills.
According to the latest figures, there are 6,700 Romanian students studying in the Netherlands, 5,700 of whom pursue a bachelor’s degree. Only from Germany and Italy do more international students come here.
MP Pieter Omtzigt has since submitted written questions (in Dutch) to the Dutch cabinet. Among other things, he wants to know how many Romanian students in the Netherlands are receiving study grants thanks to GCRS. (HOP, BB)
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