Romania keeps migration in check
Romania is staunchly committed to keeping the phenomenon of illegal migration at bay. A Coast Guard patrol ship has recently returned from a Frontex mission in the Aegean Sea where it helped rescue hundreds of migrants
Corina Cristea, 08.05.2017, 13:24
Although it is not a preferred destination by migrants from Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan or Iran, Romania is still facing this phenomenon as a transit country. News bulletins are fraught with news about migrants trying to illegally cross the border to various destinations in Western Europe. Groups of 10-12 people usually coming from war-torn countries have consistently been detained by border guards mainly at Romania’s frontier with Serbia.
According to Interior Minister Carmen Dan, the migration phenomenon is in check. The Romanian official has added the government is working on a project to beef up guard personnel in the southwest, where gendarme and border police troops have already been deployed for a better monitoring of the border.
At the same time, under a protocol signed on Friday, joint Romanian-Serbian guard teams are patrolling the common border in a bid to contain illegal migration and cross-border crime. Joint patrols are thus contributing to intelligence exchange that could be instrumental in the prevention and combating of cross-border crime, in having an effective surveillance system at the state border and supporting cooperation between the relevant authorities of the neighbouring countries in implementing a legal regime at the state border.
Border guards from Romania have also joined their foreign counterparts on Frontex missions. Coast Guard patrol ship 1102 has recently returned from the Frontex mission Poseidon C, where it contributed to the rescue of 700 migrants who found themselves in danger after trying to cross the Aegean Sea in small, overcrowded boats.
Between January and April this year the ship’s crew made up of 23 border policemen participated in 104 patrol, search & save missions together with the other participant ships.
Ship 1102 has covered no less than 11 thousand maritime miles and has monitored 14 hundred ships crossing the sector. It has been replaced by another Coast Guard vessel whose 27-strong crew will be carrying out individual patrol, search & rescue missions in the Aegean for the next four months. (Translated by D. Bilt)
