The Government of Romania has approved an ordinance that regulates the use of the IT application, portaligi.mai.gov.ro which allows making appointments for submitting the necessary documents to the territorial structures of the General Inspectorate for Immigration. The documents that form the basis of the respective applications can be uploaded in advance, in order to facilitate their subsequent verification at the counter. Uploading the documents in the portal is not equivalent to submitting the request for the extension of the right of residence. For this foreigners are obliged to present themselves at the counter, states the quoted source. The new regulations are aimed to ensure compliance with the requirements regarding the protection of personal data.
The European Commission opened an infringement procedure against 17 member states of the European Union, including Romania, for the non-transposition into national legislation of the directive on attracting highly qualified immigrants from third countries to the labor market. Known as the “EU Blue Card Directive”, the act establishes the conditions of entry and residence for highly qualified citizens coming from non-EU countries to settle and work in one of the states of the union. It is about more flexible admission conditions, additional rights and the possibility to move more easily between member states to find a job. Apart from Romania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, France, Lithuania, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden are targeted by this initiative. Brussels sent a letter to the administrations of the countries in question asking for an explanation for the delay, given that the deadline for transposing the directive was 18 November 2023. The governments concerned now have two months to respond to the letter and transpose the directive in their national legislation, otherwise they will receive a reasoned opinion, the second stage of the procedure, the last stage being the referral to the Court of Justice of the EU.
The Romanian Minister of Labour, Simona Bucura Oprescu, and the Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Labour, Le Van Thanh, signed a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the fields of labor and social security. Cooperation focuses on labor migration, employment policies for disadvantaged groups and social protection and welfare for vulnerable groups. The document was signed at the Government headquarters in Bucharest, in the presence of the Prime Minister of Romania, Marcel Ciolacu, and the Prime Minister of the Republic of Vietnam, Pham Minh Chinh, who was on a formal visit to Romania. More than 2,100 Vietnamese workers work legally in Romania, according to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Romania.
More than 10,000 asylum requests were registered in 2023, the General Inspectorate for Immigration reports. The most requests were submitted by citizens of Bangladesh – 2,821, Syria – 1,955, Pakistan – 1,231, Nepal – 871 and Sri Lanka – 528. According to the Inspectorate, it has six Regional Centers for Procedures and Accommodation for Asylum Seekers, spaces intended for the accommodation of people who have requested a form of protection in Romania, in the situation where they do not have the material means necessary for maintenance. The centers have a total accommodation capacity of 1,100 places, with the possibility of expanding by another 262. The centers where the most requests were registered are Timiş – 8,295, Bucharest – 1,128, Maramureş – 245 and Giurgiu – 242. The General Inspectorate for Immigration specifies that, during the analyzed period, 1,500 foreign citizens benefited from the integration programs, most of them from Syria, Somalia, Afghanistan, Ukraine and Iraq.