Romania will continue to help the Ukrainians fleeing from the invading Russian troops.
Romania has always been and will continue to be an „area of safety and comfort” for the waves of refugees coming from the neighboring Ukraine – Nicolae Ciucă, head of the government in Bucharest has pledged. He recalled that shortly after the invasion of the Russian troops on February 24th, Romania assumed the role of a trustworthy European and international partner in resolving this crisis, the severest in Europe after WWII.
According to a report on the efforts and achievements in providing humanitarian assistance to refugees, on observing the rights of children and other vulnerable categories in 2022, issued by the Department for Social Responsibility and Vulnerable Groups, „Romania was the first EU country to have implemented a national plan of measures on medium and long term for the inclusion and protection of refugees and has proposed for the European countries a model of leadership and coordination at political level in the field of refugee integration.”
The aforementioned report says that „over 3 million Ukrainian nationals have crossed our borders in the past 12 months, out of whom, over 2.5 million have benefitted from direct support from the Romanian government and its partners, support that consisted in free transport, food, clothes, free medical and social assistance, access to the labour market, long-term accommodation, access to education in Romanian schools and the temporary protection guarantee” offered by the Romanian state.
Prime Minister Ciucă has also said that „Romania has also provided the most important international support corridors for Ukraine by making available its rail, road, river and maritime infrastructures for the Ukrainian exports mainly for the country’s grain exports.
Decision-makers in Bucharest have also referred to the enlarged partnership with the UN agencies, local authorities, civil society and private environment, which helped them provide an effective and coherent answer to the crisis affecting the neighboring country. „We have reached the stage when we must have an approach focusing on temporary integration or on medium and long-term measures, which may enable the Ukrainian refugees to lead an independent life in our country with access to the labour market and their children to benefit from education and social life” – the Prime Minister went on to say.
Most of the 3.3 million Ukrainian citizens who crossed into Romania have continued their trip to countries in Western Europe and, according to the authorities, only 100 thousand decided to remain here. Under the decisions recently made by the authorities in Bucharest, the Ukrainian refugees who cross into our country through the border checkpoints with Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova will this year also benefit from five days of free railway transportation in Romania since the moment of their entry.
(Bogdan Matei, Radio Romania International)
