Noi culturi, noi antropologii - Humanitas

in Romania his refugee status was withdrawn. Applying for
a permanent domicile in Romania provided no advantage
for refugees as they would fall automatically under the aliens’
regime with fewer rights and many conditions to fulfill.
UNHCR (2000:51) argued that the only advantage for refugees
would have been to reach the five-year limit of refugee
status and then to obtain a domicile in Romania, domicile
which would have allowed the former refugee to legally stay
in Romania. Similar to other positive situations which were
present only on paper, until 2000 no foreign national was
granted a domicile in Romania despite the existence of 4000
pending applications.
Until 2004 when Romania signed the first integration
program for refugees and other immigrants in Romania,
„integration“ was not a popular subject for the Romanian
authorities and refugees were treated like any other foreign
person who arrived in Romania: „Romania, Slovakia and
Poland are the only countries to date whose Asylum Laws
do not include legal provisions formally recognizing their
obligations with respect to integration.“ 161 Until 2004, the
integration of immigrants was the duty of the UN Refugee
Agency in Romania. The UN Agency was integrating immigrants
into the Romanian society by funding different NGOs
activating in the field of integration in Romania (Jesuit Refugee
Service, OFRR – The Organization of Refugee Women
in Romania, ARCA – The Romanian Forum for Refugees and
Migrants):
In 1997 there was no organization which helped refugees.
There was nothing. You were treated as a foreigner who came
to school. But I didn’t come for school and we didn’t have
the same benefices as the students. The ones from the police
treated us like foreign students because there was nobody
trained on refugee issues. There was only the Red Cross, a UN
agency sent by UNHCR to assist us. They gave us clothes, food
and medical assistance. You had to find your own housing because
you could only stay in the refugee centre which was full
of Somali people and the conditions were pretty bad. 162
161. Idem, p.27.
162. Al, Refugee from Congo, 36 years old.
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