Romania and the Refugee Crisis

Statistics confirm Romania is not a favourite country of destination for the refugees seeking to enter Europe.

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Florentin Căpitănescu, 19.02.2016, 14:02

Far from being appealing to the refugees fleeing the Middle East and Northern Africa, Romania still bears certain responsibilities in this matter. Our country is to take in some 300 refugees who are already on European soil, 160 in Italy and 135 in Greece. The announcement came from the head of the General Inspectorate for Immigration Viorel Vasile.

Viorel Vasile: “Last year the EU decided that Romania should contribute to the relocation of refugees from Italy and Greece. Weve submitted letters of intent and carried out checks and we are now waiting to receive these refugees. It all depends on our colleagues from the two countries.

Also worth mentioning is the fact that the accommodation capacity of Romanias six asylum centres has been supplemented. The centres are now only 11% full, indicative of the refugees low interest in coming to Romania. Another obvious explanation is that Romania is inferior to other member states from northern Europe, not only economically, but also in terms of development. Over 40% of the asylum applications registered in 2015 were filed by Syrian refugees, most of whom were relatives or friends of Syrian citizens already settled in Romania. Still, the number of Syrian asylum seekers, nearly 500, is insignificant compared to the 105 thousand foreign nationals living in Romania.

The refugee crisis was also on the agenda of Thursdays meeting of the European Council, indicating the communitys concern in the matter. European Council president Donald Tusk said Brussels wants to strike a deal with Turkey to tackle the migration issue within the EU legislation. In this respect a special meeting with Turkey might take place early next month to address this issue.

On the other hand, Europes faulty management of the refugee crisis has been harshly criticized by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi. The UN official told the German publication Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that as far as cooperation, solidarity and the registration and distribution of refugees are concerned, Europe has utterly failed.