The International Monetary Fund forecasts that Moldova will be the world leader for the amount of money sent home by migrants in 2008. Most of the Moldovan workers abroad are illegal immigrants. This year, the country placed second among 200 countries worldwide.

In 2008 Moldova will be the world’s leading country in terms of money which migrant workers send home. In this year’s survey, Moldova ranks second in the world for the amount of money sent home by migrants to their families. 27% of Moldova’s GDP consists of the $854 million sent home from abroad. The numbers are taken from a just-released report called “Moldova - Migration Problems.” Among some 200 countries in the world, the African state of Togo ranks as number one. Togo, a failed state, is one of the poorest countries in Africa. Moldova is the poorest country in Europe. In the most recent Failed State Index 2006 from the Washington based Foreign Policy, Moldova was listed as a failed state by the magazine. Economically, Moldova ranks equal to Afghanistan. Human beings are today Moldova’s leading export. Nearly half of Moldova’s working-age population have already abandoned the country to find work abroad as ‘gast arbeiters’ and now send money home to support family members who they left behind. Most of them work illegally, without residence permits or proper papers in the destination countries. They are undocumented aliens and illegal immigrants, and some are sold into the sex slave trade. Others provide the source material for a roaring trade in illegal human organs. Worse still, in April and May of this year, two human rights groups pointed out that Moldovan government officials are involved in the sale of child prostitutes, and the 2007 US State Department report on human trafficking pinpoints Moldova as one of the worst problem areas in Europe. Over the past seven years, the percentage that money transfers contribute to the Moldovan GDP has increased from 8 to 27%.Experts from the International Monetary Fund believe that money transfers will continue to grow to $1.4 billion by 2008. This will represent almost a doubling of current figures in less than a year, and will put Moldova squarely in pole position as the country, which is most dependent on foreign remittances in the world.