The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Teodor Melescanu, has recently stated that he made an offer to bring to Romania 1,942 refugees who are now in Greece and Italy. "Recently, I have made an offer for 1,942 refugees from Greece and Italy whom we can relocate to Romania. We already have about 700 refugees on our territory," Melescanu said in an interview for private TV broadcaster Realitatea TV, on Friday.
He underlined that Romania "is massively participating in the Black Sea operations aimed at stoping the refugees flow and rescuing those who dare to venture into such actions.' "Obviously, the migration issue and the refugees issue represent two distinct categories. The first category includes those who become refugees out of political reasons, who are running from war, but there is also an economic migration, especially from such countries with failed regimes and with very difficult living conditions. Romania expressed her solidarity, although we started from the idea that it is not normal to have such fixed refugee quotas. At the same time, we showed our readiness to receive a certain number of refugees," added the Minister.
Melescanu also showed that Romania is currently working on an initiative to sent 50 gendarmes and policemen to train the Iraqi security forces for fighting the Daesh. "Romania committed to contribute 800,000 euros to the coalition against the Islamic state and help the civilian victims in those areas. Besides this contribution, which will be made during the next four years, when we are going to contribute 200,000 every year, we will also bring a 340,000 euros worth contribution to those people who are hurting in Syria. This is mainly a humanitarian aid and, also, we are going to bring another contribution which we didn't establish yet, to the European Union Fund, to help Syrian refugees stationed in Turkey at this hour," the Foreign Affairs Minister explained.