Radio România Internațional

Tag: Romanian border

  • Europe and the Immigration Issue

    Europe and the Immigration Issue

    After around 300,000 migrants transited Hungary in mid-2015 en route to Western Europe, Hungarian authorities halted this flow by sealing its Serbian border in September and its Croatian border a month later. The decision to put up barbed wire fences was heavily criticised by Brussels and Western capitals, but it nonetheless enabled Budapest to redirect migrants to Slovenia.



    Recently, Hungary has announced that the number of people entering the country illegally is once again on the rise. This comes after neighbouring Austria announced it would tighten border checks and restrict the number of people who may get on its territory. Among the immigrants there are a growing number of people coming from North Africa, Kosovo, Pakistan, but also from Sri Lanka or Haiti, whose chances to get asylum in the EU are very low, unlike those of Syrian refugees.



    As pressure mounts at his countrys borders, PM Viktor Orban ordered the preparation of defence lines along the frontier with Romania. This is not a new idea. Back in November 2015, Hungarian officials had announced plans to build a metal fence at the border with Romania, if necessary. As the Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in January, Budapest is ready to build the fence on its Romanian border “the next day. The same official argued that the measures are in full compliance with international and national regulations, and warned all those who criticised his country that, by protecting the Schengen border, Hungary was fulfilling its obligations, as defined by the EU legislation.



    In his annual address this past weekend, PM Viktor Orban announced having sent new military units to the border regions, having activated an emergency response service in two border counties and having instructed his defence and interior ministers to make preparations for the defence line on the Hungarian-Romanian border. Orban added that, if necessary, the Hungarian authorities would tighten security along all its frontiers, from Slovenia to Ukraine.



    At the EU summit held last week in Brussels, the EU leaders agreed that Europes borders need to be protected and illegal migration must be stopped, while the rules of the visa-free Schengen area must be respected by everybody.

  • Romania’s Iron Border

    Romania’s Iron Border

    Back in the 1980s Romanias western border witnessed real tragedies that few people know about today. Some of the Romanians who tried to illegally cross the border into the free world, got either killed, maimed or served years in prison. Some of them got away and made it to Western Europe, where they shared the stories of those who tried to flee the communist inferno. The accounts of the people attempting to swim across the Danube are truly haunting.



    According to a volume signed by Doina Magheti and Johann Steiner, ‘Silent Graves (Mormintele Tac), about 16 thousand people tried to cross Romanias western border illegally. Twelve thousand were captured and served prison sentences of up to six months each, but the exact number of those who died at the hands of border guards remains unknown. Cemeteries with graves of unidentified people whose deadly sin was the desire to live in freedom lie on either side of the Danube. Those who tried to cross Romanias western border in search of a better life in the West came to be called “frontieristi, that is, “frontier people in Romanian. Dan Danila was born in Sibiu and attempted to cross the Danube in a rubber dinghy back in 1986. During the discussion he had with us he spoke about the psychological training he underwent before the crossing.



    Dan Danila: “Preparation for the crossing, I mean the psychological preparation, took years. It was a complex battle between fear, despair and courage. After all, courage stemmed from the desperate situation the two of us were in at the time. It wasnt something we decided on the spot. We had just graduated from university, we were young, but not reckless. We prepared everything, studied maps of Romania and other regions, learnt how to use a compass and bought camouflage fishermen clothing. Instead of traveling towards the Danube from Herculane Spa, as did all those who tried to cross the river, we went in the opposite direction, moving inland so as not to raise suspicions. We went into the woods advancing deep into wild territory, using only the compass. After a couple of rough nights, sleeping in ditches and holes in the ground and wearing our makeshift ghillie suits, we managed to launch the boat, but couldnt row properly because we were too afraid not to be caught. For a while we failed to coordinate and we moved in circles very close to the river bank.



    Summer was the season mostly preferred by these so-called “frontier people, the season with the largest number of crossing attempts. Border patrols resorted to all means to stop them; they shot them in the head or ran them over with motorboats. Those captured were beaten unconscious and some of them were killed and buried right on the border trail. Trained dogs were used to track them down, and in some cases dead bodies were left unburied as a warning for others. The Yugoslav authorities repeatedly complained to the Romanian side for the dead bodies that were clogging the pump systems at the Iron Gates hydropower plant. Dan Danila and his friend decided to cross the Danube off-season, so to say.



    Dan Danila: “We crossed the Danube in spring; it was in late March, the beginning of April, and we preferred that time because we wanted to take border guards by surprise. It was hot in summer and therefore easier for the guards to monitor the border. When the weather outside was colder, guards needed a break every once in a while, to get warm. The season was not very popular with those attempting an escape. In summertime people even dared to swim across the Danube to Yugoslavia.



    The difficulty of these escape plans was that once you crossed the border, there was no guarantee that Yugoslav or Hungarian border guards would not send you back to Romania. And thats exactly what happened to Dan Danila and his friend.



    Dan Danila: “We managed to cross the Danube and were sent to a refugee camp in Belgrade, where we stayed for a couple of months. Migrating to the USA didnt appeal much to my friend, whod have rather remained in Europe. He convinced me to leave the camp and we tried to make it to Austria, but got caught by the Yugoslav guards and sent back to Romania. We had found out that dictator Ceausescu had granted a general amnesty and thats why we decided to push the envelope a little bit. We knew we would not go to jail. They would have given us a good beating and set us free eventually.



    If we looked strictly at the wording of the law, any illegal border-crossing attempt remains a crime. But when the law is only an instrument in the hands of a repressive totalitarian regime, those trying to leave it cannot not be regarded as criminals. Those who tried to cross the border and live their lives in freedom found themselves alone in the fight against dictator Ceausescus criminal regime, and the case of Dan Danila and his friend is illustrative of the way in which the communists used to treat their citizens.

  • Measures and Opinions on Migration

    Measures and Opinions on Migration

    The Hungarian authorities steps to stop the inflow of migrants on its Serbian border do not seem to work. On the contrary, they generate growing tensions, as international criticism mounts. The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon views the conduct of Hungarian forces as unacceptable, and calls on the authorities to show compassion for the refugees. This statement comes after hundreds of immigrants protested on Wednesday against the closing of the Hungarian-Serbian border, and Budapest responded with tear gas and water cannons. Serbias PM Aleksandar Vucic accused neighbouring Hungary of being “brutal and non-European and urged the EU to step in.



    In Romania, politicians have also condemned Budapests approach to the refugee crisis, as well as its plans to build a fence on the common border, similar to the one on the Serbian border. Over the past few days the Romanian PM Victor Ponta has criticized harshly the Hungarian response to the migration issue, which has angered the officials in Brussels. Ponta argued that what Hungary does comes against the European principles and fail to solve the problem.



    Victor Ponta: “Unfortunately, the conduct of the Hungarian officials has nothing to do with the concept of Europe. Fences, dogs, guns, it looks like 1930s Europe. This is something that most European leaders believe as well, and if it upsets the Hungarian officials is of little consequence to me.



    According to the Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu, building a fence on the Hungarian-Romanian border is an unacceptable approach of the relations between two EU countries.



    Bogdan Aurescu: “It is an attempt by the Hungarian party to drag us into an artificial dispute, probably in order to reduce Hungarys perceived self-isolation within the EU, generated by its own actions.



    The co-president of the National Liberal Party, in opposition, Alina Gorghiu, says a razor-wire fence is no way to strengthen border security, and criticized the measure taken by Budapest. The head of the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, Kelemen Hunor, argues however that the fence will not affect the free movement of European citizens.



    Kelemen Hunor: “This solution is not meant to divide Romania and Hungary, it is not taken against Romanians or against European citizens. This fence is designed to stop the immigrants who enter a European state illegally.



    Meanwhile, Hungary announced plans to build fences along the border with Croatia as well, after a growing number of migrants switched to this route in order to get to Germany.

  • The Ukraine Conflict and Ethnic Romanians

    The Ukraine Conflict and Ethnic Romanians

    On Friday the Romanian Foreign Ministry issued a new warning concerning the armed conflict in east Ukraine, this time about a number of roads in the Cernauti region, near the Romanian border, which had been blocked. Sources from the region later explained that the locals in west Ukraine, mostly ethnic Romanians, had chosen this form of protest to express their discontent with Kiev’s decision to call a new partial military mobilization.



    Hundreds of Romanian youth were called to arms, and their parents fear that they will be sent to fight against the pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country. People from Cernauti have already lost their lives in the clashes, so outraged people burnt their incorporation orders in the streets. The locals blocked the roads and threatened they would not leave until the regional authorities cancel the orders issued after the Parliament of Ukraine approved a partial mobilization last week. The president of the “Mihai Eminescu” Romanian Cultural Association in Cernauti, Vasile Bacu, told Radio Romania:



    Vasile Bacu: “A lot of men were invited to the Military Commissariat to establish reservist units that would receive military training. Those who took to the streets are mostly the parents and relatives of those who are already deployed to the east of the country, because bad news keeps coming from that region. Men from Cernauti were killed there as well. So everybody is afraid their men will be sent to war.”



    “We need peace in Ukraine. We don’t need our kids going to war and dying,” says one of the protesters, quoted by Romanian mass media. Another one wonders why Romanian youth have to die in Donbas or Donetsk, whereas young people from eastern Ukraine came to their region as refugees.



    Totaling around half a million people, the Romanian community in Ukraine lives mostly in the west of the country, in the former Romanian territories that were annexed by the former Soviet Union in 1940, and which in 1991 became part of Ukraine. This third-largest ethnic community in Ukraine, after the Ukrainians and Russians, the Romanian minority has no part in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.



    In Bucharest, the Foreign Ministry once again recommended caution as regards travels to Ukraine, and posted updated security information on the region on its homepage, at www.mae.ro.