Prime Minister Victor Ponta urged on Friday support from the NGOs and from the civil society organizations to integrate refugees who could arrive in Romania.
“I don’t think the authorities are the only ones that can do something regarding the integration of people on a short, medium or long term within the Romanian society. (…) We take them, we put them into some buildings and that’s it. We are talking also about children, first of all, they have some universally recognized rights on the international level and I refer here to school, to kindergarten, medical care, it’s about the desire to find a work place for some, because, otherwise, quite rightly, people would say: what do we do, we pay for others? (…)
It’s about preparing local communities, wherever such situations may take place, we should not behave like a thousand years ago, to fear that someone comes and we must flee. (…) If we are to succeed we must work together. (…) We know to guard the border, to make some accommodation facilities, but in order to do more than that, we need to cooperate with the civil society,” Ponta said during the meeting with civil society representatives at Victoria Palace on the topic of refugee crisis.
The prime minister stressed that solutions for children must be identified, stressing that the role of NGOs in this case is very important.
The meeting takes place upon the initiative of the members of civil society, who last week sent a request to the authorities to reconsider their attitude about the refugee crisis.
Several NGOs, including the Pro Democracy Association, Civil Society Development Foundation, Salva?i Copiii Romania, Romania Syrian Community, the Association of Turkish Businessmen attended the meeting at Victoria Palace.
Photo: gov.ro