Radio România Internațional

Tag: refugee

  • Romanian competent aid for Ukrainian refugees

    Romanian competent aid for Ukrainian refugees


    The Workshops without Frontiers Association this past weekend organized a Jobs market for Ukrainian refugees. The event was hosted by the Viilor Economic College in Bucharest. Among other things, participants were offered help in composing their CVs and letters of intention. Also available were interpreters/translators for those Ukrainian refugees who were in need of that, as well as mediations between candidates and employers.



    The Workshops without Frontiers Association has made public the fact that they were among the first such associations to have accepted the employment of refugees from Ukraine, in their own workshops but also via a string of services meant to facilitate the refugees access to jobs in Romania. In 2022, the Association organized free-of-charge Romanian language courses for 224 people, as well as workshops focusing on facilitating the understanding of the legal framework of the work environment in Romania. The Association also organized CV writing workshops, labor market counselling and assessment activities, but also community events for the Ukrainian refugees. The aforementioned event was part of a project financed by the United Nations High Command for Refugees. The event was carried with the support from Ilfov Countys Employment Agency.



    The Municipality of Brasov, a city located in central Romania on October the 2nd inaugurated a services hub for the refugees from Ukraine. Involved in the undertaking were 10 associations or foundations from across Brasov municipal city. Attending the event was the representative in Romania of the United Nations High Command for Refugees, Pablo Zapata. The associations involved in the hub labelled KATYA offer educational services for children, support for the job seekers as well as mental health assistance and psycho-social support. Also, the associations provide facilitators for translations in the case of the Ukrainian refugees who intend to access healthcare services in Romania. The hub is a project of Brasov Metropolitan Agency for Sustainable Development Hub-ul, carried in partnership with the Terre des Hommes Foundation in Romania. The hub has the support of the United Nations High Command for Refugees. As present, KATYA has roughly 500 beneficiaries. The Ukrainian citizens who need the services of the hub can ask for help or additional info accessing an email address, at katyahub@metropolabrasov.ro.



    Tulcea County Employment Agency, in the south-east, on September 27 staged an event themed The Entrepreneurial and digital competencies in the context of todays labor market current demands. The event targeted a group of 13 Ukrainian high-school students from the town of Izmail. Accompanying and guiding the group of high-school students was an information, communication and selection officer of Suceava Cross-Border Regional Cooperation Office. As part of the event, the young pupils got info on the free-of-charge services offered by the Tulcea County Employment Agency, for job seekers. Basically, the information focused on the required labor market competencies, with a view to enhancing productivity and providing decent jobs, as well as on the importance of entrepreneurial and digital skills. Also, the pupils visited the entrepreneurial consultancy Centre and were given detailed info on howe to access and use the CREDA-DEBUS portal. CREDA -DEBUS is a communication platform providing info on the improvement of quality and access to entrepreneurial education. CREDA-DEBUS seeks to develop at least 75 business plans, for a 12-month timeframe.



    Border policemen in western Romanias Timis County this past weekend stopped nine citizens of Nepal and Pakistan, in their attempt to illegally cross the Romanian-Serbian border. Aged 25 to 46, the foreign citizens trespassed the Romanian territory having a work permit, yet they stated they intended to reach western Europe. The case is definitely not a one-of-a-kind one. On September 29, Timis County border policemen caught other 11 citizens from Nepal and Egypt, aged 22 to 38, in their attempt to cross Romanias Serbian border illegally. Just as in the aforementioned illegal border crossing case, those citizens had entered Romanian territory illegally having work permits, yet they intended to reach countries in Western Europe.



    Every week, dozens of foreign workers arriving in Romania and having a labour contract are caught at the countrys western border, in their attempt to flee Romania illegally. They are detained for fraudulent crossing of state border. In such cases, legal sentences range from a fine to imprisonment from 6 month to 3 years.




  • Education for Ukrainian refugees

    Education for Ukrainian refugees


    It’s
    been a month since the Russian invasion of Ukraine and refugees are
    continuing to arrive in Romania. More than half a million have so far
    crossed the border into Romania, being received with solidarity and
    generosity by their Romanian neighbours. The government in Bucharest
    said it can provide accommodation to 400,000 refugees, but of the
    many who have crossed into Romania, few have stayed, and fewer still,
    only a few thousand, have asked for some form of protection from the
    Romanian state.



    According
    to education minister Sorin Cîmpeanu, 34,000 of the almost 79,000
    refugees currently in Romania are children, and 24,000 of them are of
    school age. 1,140 of these children have applied to study under the
    Romanian curriculum, most of them probably belonging to ethnic
    Romanian communities in Ukraine, a community which is the second
    largest in that country after the ethnic Russian community. The
    majority of Ukrainian children now taking refuge in Romania wish,
    however, to study under the Ukrainian curriculum, and this, says
    minister Cîmpeanu, requires first and foremost logistical support
    from Romanian schools, namely classroom space and technical
    equipment. Sorin Cîmpeanu:

    Romanian
    schools have stocks of tablets that have not been distributed because
    additional stocks were purchased. These surplus tablets will be
    distributed among Ukrainian children, without Romanian children
    having to go without.







    The
    government is also planning to permit
    an exemption from
    the Romanian education law for Ukrainian
    children in their final year of secondary
    school to allow them to
    continue their high school studies in Romania even if
    they
    do not speak Romanian. Under current legislation, pupils
    can only register to high school if they pass the so-called national
    evaluation, which is made up of exams in mathematics and the Romanian
    language.


    This
    week, the authorities in Bucharest are
    having talks
    with
    the visiting European Commissioner for
    Jobs
    and Social Rights Nikolas Schmidt about
    the integration of Ukrainian children into the education system. (CM)

  • Migrant pressure on the EU

    Migrant pressure on the EU

    As relations between Minsk and the EU deteriorate and Belarus’s
    president Aleksandr Lukashenko strengthens his aggressive rhetoric, the refugee
    crisis at the Union’s eastern border risks turning into a humanitarian disaster.


    This is precisely why, at the request of France,
    Ireland and Estonia, the Security Council decided to convene to look for solutions
    for the thousands of people who are trying to get to Western Europe but are
    kept in inhumane conditions at the border.


    For several months now, Belarus has been encouraging
    Middle East migrants to cross its territory on their way to the EU via Poland
    and the Baltic states, and the crisis has been deepening these past few days, when
    thousands of refugees crowded at the border and tried to cross into Poland
    illegally.


    Poland has deployed troops on the border to push back
    the migrants, and informed its NATO allies of the crisis. The North-Atlantic
    Alliance is monitoring the situation and promises to safeguard the security of
    its members, including Lithuania and Latvia, who are also facing migrant
    pressure from Belarus.


    In fact, this is not the first time that the three EU
    member states see migratory waves, mostly Syrian, Iraqi and Afghan nationals trying
    to get illegally into Germany. The EU has repeatedly accused Belarus of pushing
    these migrants into European territory in retaliation to the sanctions
    triggered by Alexandr Lukashenko’s election fraud last year and by the brutal
    crackdown on the post-election protests.


    To add to the complications, Russia, a supporter of
    the Lukashenko regime, has deployed 2 nuclear-capable bombers to fly over
    Belarus. Media agencies note that a growing number of EU voices blame the
    crisis on Russia’s president Vladimir Putin, but Kremlin dismissed the
    allegations as unacceptable. President Putin, contacted on the phone by the
    German Chancellor Angela Merkel in order to put an end to the crisis, suggested
    direct talks between the EU and Minsk, to discuss the issue.


    The EU border is the scene of a brutal hybrid attack with
    Belarus cynically and shockingly using the desperation of migrants as a weapon,
    said the president of the European Council, Charles Michel. The situation on
    the border between Belarus and Poland is not a migrant crisis, but an attempt
    by Minsk to destabilise its neighbours, the EC president Ursula von der Leyen
    said in her turn, warning that the Union would extend its sanctions against
    individuals and entities in Belarus. (tr. A.M. Popescu)

  • Romania and the Refugee Crisis

    Romania and the Refugee Crisis

    The first Syrian
    refugees arriving in Romania have been taken over by the Regional Accommodation
    and Procedure Centre for Asylum-Seekers in Timisoara, western Romania. They are
    four citizens found in a railway station with no documents on them, who said
    they wanted to reach Germany and requested asylum in Romania.

    According to
    official data, Romania is not subject to any pressure with regard to migration,
    with 944 asylum applications registered this year, as compared to 900 in 2014.
    The Romanian Government, however, has taken precautionary measures and has rendered operational two camps in
    the west of the country, with a capacity of 500 places each. Besides immediate
    measures, the Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta has warned that the
    situation is unsatisfactory with regard to this country’s capacity to integrate
    refugees.


    Prime Minister Victor Ponta:

    There
    are several issues here that need to be addressed, such as getting the
    necessary documents, accessing
    health-care services, especially for the elderly, and children accessing
    education services, not to mention integration and access to jobs. So far,
    Romania’s stand and mentality have been the proper ones, and I believe it’s our
    duty to properly understand the scale and significance of this phenomenon at
    European level, and be prepared for any type of challenge. We need to have in
    place the necessary mechanisms, which
    would ensure not only prevention, but also integration, when the right moment
    comes.


    According to the European
    Commission’s plan to relocate 120,000 migrants among the 28 EU member states,
    Romania has been allocated another 2475 refugees, adding to the 1785 that
    Bucharest had announced it could receive. Prime Minister Victor Ponta says
    authorities and institutions should make a joint effort, given that regulations
    regarding the protection of refugees, of children and people in need have not
    yet been properly transposed into the national legislation. Romanian
    authorities can only spend 0,8 Euro per day for each refugee who reaches
    Romanian soil, because this is what a law of 2006 says, but this law must be
    amended, the prime minister has also stressed. In turn, the opposition has
    voiced its availability to support whatever measures may be needed, for Romania
    to display solidarity with the rest of Europe.

    Here is liberal deputy Ionut
    Stroe:

    You’ve
    got Parliament’s support, at least in statements, but we need to turn these
    statements into reality and come up with legislative proposals that would
    create the necessary social integration and health-care mechanisms, and all
    those things that you have mentioned.


    Also, Ionut Stroe has stated that
    Romania is one of the very few countries that still have an embassy in Syria,
    and this is a reality that should be capitalized on.