Four Romanian citizens may be held hostages by Chinese workers since a few days ago, along with other citizens, mostly Israelis, on an Atlantic island. The announcement was made by the Israeli ambassador in the Dominican Republic, quoted by ynet.news.

"The Israelis are employees of the Ashtrom Engineering and Construction firm, which employed the 300 laborers for a large tourism project. The venture, however, was put on hold due to the global financial crisis. The laborers are demanding Ashtrom compensate them for their travel expenses and missing wages. Israel's ambassador to the Dominican Republic, Amos Radian, spoke with Ynet shortly after the story broke on Thursday afternoon. Radian said that upon hearing of the crisis he immediately contacted the British consul general in the region, as the United Kingdom has sovereignty over the Turks and Caicos island chain. The Israelis are being held on West Caicos", ynet.news informs.

The incident was also confirmed by an AFP piece of news, but the agency made no mentions about the Romanians. The Romanian Foreign Ministry hasn't made yet any comments.