The General Immigration Inspectorate (IGI) received 443 asylum seeking applications in the first half of 2016, nearly 40 percent less than in the first half of 2015, when 744 applications were registered.
Most of the asylum seekers were from Syria – 154, nearly 35 percent of the total; Iraq – 69; Pakistan – 33; Afghanistan – 21, IGI reported in a press statement released on Sunday.
At the same time, 430 requests for international protection were solved at an administrative stage, with protection having been extended in 226 instances – 132 people received refugee status and 94 received subsidiary protection, which gives an approval rate of about 53 percent.
In order to implement the decisions of the European Union establishing provisional measures in the area of international protection, 68 persons (families accompanied by underage children and young people) in need of international protection from Italy and Greece were resettled in Romania.
The people in question arrived in Romania under decisions accepting resettlement on its soil after special analyses and security checks were conducted.
In H1, 2016, as many as 148 foreigners under international protection were included in integration programmes, actively taking part in social and psychological counselling sessions, orientation and cultural adjustment as well as Romanian language classes, said IGI.
Starting this May, several NGOs started conducted projects on European funds to assist and help ingrate vulnerable people from among foreigners entitled to stay in Romania.
The projects are conducted at regional integration centres, where immigrants are offered a wide range of integrated services and assistance that meet their needs for counselling, information, education, access to socialisation and leisure activities, employment and getting in touch with authorities, said IGI.
Legal residence for 110,000 foreigners in Romania, in first half of 2016
The General Inspectorate for Immigration managed the legal stay in Romania of 110,393 foreign citizens in the first half of 2016; 45,716 of them were from the EU, the European Economic Area and Switzerland. Among non-EU countries, Moldova, Turkey and China sent most people.
Most foreigners chose residence in Bucharest and the surrounding Ilfov County, and in the counties of Constanta, Iasi, Timis and Cluj.
The most frequent reason for the foreigners’ stays was to join their families, followed by education, work and permanent residence.
Over the said period, permission to enter Romania was denied to 366 people; 1102 illegal residents were found, and 892 decisions were issued to remove foreigners from the country; 200 were escorted out, and documents were prepared for taking into custody 192, for which deportation was not possible within 24 hours; 82 foreigners opted for the humanitarian voluntary repatriation.
