Under the mechanism for relocating refugees set
\nup in 2015 by the European Commission, Romania was supposed to accommodate over
\n4,000 people that reached Greece and Italy from Africa and the Middle East. The
\nreal figure is much lower. At present only 710 people registered as refugees
\nhave reached Romania after previously arriving in the two aforementioned
\ncountries. Most of them come from Syria, Iraq, Eritrea and Yemen. The reason
\nbehind this low number is the fact that illegal migrants who are eligible for
\nrelocation to another European country are fewer than the European Commission
\nhad originally expected. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
At the time, Romania had expressed its
\nsolidarity with the refugee crisis, but opposed the so-called mandatory quotas
\nof refugee that each Member State had to receive, and thus refused to vote on
\nthis matter, alongside Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Refugees and
\nmigrants are two distinct categories, Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu
\nexplained, arguing that the former flee a country at war for political reasons,
\nwhile the latter might choose to relocate from a failed state seeking better
\neconomic opportunities. Romania has expressed its solidarity in this respect,
\nthe Foreign Minister went on to say, but it has opposed the idea of assigned
\nquotas. Minister Melescanu said Romania is ready to receive a certain number of
\nrefugees, as any Member State would. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Last week Bucharest offered to accommodate
\n1,942 refugees from Greece and Italy. On the other hand, Minister Melescanu
\npointed out that Romania is taking an active role in operations in the Black
\nSea to stop the flow of refugees and rescue people who try to illegally cross
\ninto Romania at the risk of their own life. According to the Foreign Minister,
\nRomania is working on an initiative to dispatch 50 gendarmes and police
\nofficers to train Iraqi security forces to fight the Islamic State terrorist
\norganisation. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Romania also pledged to contribute 800,000
\neuros to the international coalition fighting the Islamic State and helping the
\ncivilian population in conflict areas. We will also allocate 340,000 euros
\nworth of humanitarian aid to the Syrian people, and we are yet to decide on a
\ncontribution to the EU fund for aiding Syrian refugees in Turkey, the Romanian
\nForeign Minister added. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Although it opposed the assigned refugee quotas, Romania will fulfil its obligations as a member of the European Union.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":67470,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[39027],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-74454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-refugee-quota"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n