Record number of asylum applications in Romania: More than half submitted by Ukrainians

In the first half of this year, Romania faced a record number of asylum applications – 7,525, of which 4,359 were submitted by Ukrainian citizens. Of all asylum applications, 1,997 were submitted by minors – 1,504 children aged 0-13 and 493 children aged 14-17, says the Save the Children Romania organization.

The NGO conducted the Social Inclusion of Migrants project through the involvement of local communities, to respond to the most important problem faced by asylum seekers and beneficiaries of international protection – high social exclusion, given that, at a general level , over 44% of Romanians have a negative opinion of immigrants, although the trend is decreasing.

Since the start of the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, more than 70,000 Ukrainians have received temporary protection. According to the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), Romania has become in 2021 a major transit route for migrants seeking access to the European Union.

Although the asylum seeker has the obligation not to leave the place of residence without notifying the General Inspectorate for Immigration, however, in practice it has been found that many times they leave Romania before the asylum procedure is completed.

Also, even if they stay in the country long enough to receive international protection, migrants often leave our country, the main reason given by them being higher incomes in Western Europe, the possibility to reunite with relatives from other countries, more opportunities numerous for a decent living.

Another difficulty encountered in practice is related to the too long duration for the resolution of the asylum request, 30 days and sometimes even more.

The war launched by Vladimir Putin in Ukraine on February 24 has generated a huge humanitarian crisis: almost a third of Ukrainians have been forced to flee their homes. It is one of the biggest population displacement crises of our time. In Ukraine, more than 6.6 million people remain forcibly displaced. More than 3.8 million refugees in Ukraine have registered for temporary protection or similar national protection schemes.

More than 12.6 million individual trips from Ukraine were recorded as of February 24, 2022, with more than 4.5 million returning to the country.

Inside Ukraine, many of those who have not left the country cannot meet their basic needs, including food, water and medicine. Delivering relief aid remains a challenge, with a lack of safe humanitarian access to areas where intense fighting is ongoing.

Since the outbreak of this crisis, 2,367,371 Ukrainian citizens have entered Romania. There are currently approximately 87,000 Ukrainian citizens in Romania. Among those who chose to stay in Romania, 4,387 applied for asylum and 69,807 have temporary residence permits.