Post by radovic on Nov 20, 2007 14:39:00 GMT -5
Deported Romanians to Get More Support at Home
20 11 2007 Deported from EU countries, thousands of Romanians with criminal records face difficulties when they return home.
By Calin Cosmaciuc in Bucharest
The Romanian government has announced plans to address the massive migration of workers to other EU countries that has taken place since the beginning of this year. The measures will require substantial resources and a fresh approach to long-standing social problems.
Observers wonder whether the relevant authorities in Bucharest and throughout the country can provide either.
When migrants come home it is often difficult for them to reintegrate in society, due to a lack of government programmes, few job opportunities and in some cases actual discrimination.
Around 23,000 Romanian citizens were deported from EU countries in the last eighteen months, according to the Romanian TV station Realitatea. Most of these people, mainly of Roma origin, have been banned from entering the EU for up to five years, having been convicted of petty crimes, mainly begging, stealing or failing to abide by the regulations that cover residence in another member-country.
Italy is the latest EU country to launch a campaign to deport Romanians on the grounds that they represent a threat to public security. This follows a wave of violent crime in Italy blamed on immigrants from Romania. One such crime was the rape and murder of 47-year old Giovanna Reggiani.
This month alone, Rome has served 177 Romanians with deportation orders, though the number who have actually left until now is smaller than that. "Forty-nine people have already been deported from Italy in November, most of them because they had been squatting on private property or because they did not have social security papers," sources within the Romanian Interior Ministry told Balkan Insight.
People who have been deported are taken into police custody at Bucharest airport. "We check their fingerprints and ask them about their specific situation. Later, they are sent home under police escort or at least escorted to a bus that will take them home," a policeman working at Otopeni Airport says. Information gathered by the police at the airport is then passed on to the local authorities, who are responsible for the deportees' situation.
Last month, Bucharest announced plans to tackle the problem of crime committed in Italy by Romanian migrants, including measures that will help support those who are sent back home.
Most of the burden will fall on local authorities, who will be obliged to offer meals and temporary accommodation to deportees who require this, along with legal support and psychiatric care where necessary. Deportees will also be offered places on vocational training programs.
"We want to find jobs for them in Romania and help fight criminality in that way. Also, we have to take measures against the people who organize networks for recruiting illegal workers," Labour Minister Paul Pacuraru says.
Those who come back to Romania voluntarily will have priority when it comes to being allocated social accommodation. Also, companies that employ these people will receive state subventions, according to the government plan. The accommodation project will be financed from European Union funds, while the company subvention scheme will be paid for out of the state budget.
However, it will not be easy to turn these plans into reality. Although the social accommodation plan has been agreed, Pacuraru pointed out to Balkan Insight that "it is very difficult to find proper houses as local authorities do not have enough suitable buildings."
Government policies are not just focused on dealing with deportees and emigrants who have failed to succeed in foreign countries. The authorities want to encourage workers to return home in order to respond to domestic labor shortages. Many left the country after Romania joined the European Union early this year, taking modestly paid jobs. As many as two million Romanians are now working abroad, mainly in Italy and Spain.
"We need people to work in construction, in the food industry, in textile factories. But while the salaries are good enough, we still face the situation that many simply refuse to do this kind of work," Pacuraru said, adding that this applies particularly to members of the Roma (Gypsy) community.
There are between 1.5 and two million Roma in Romania; the authorities routinely discuss problems affecting this community in terms of criminality, but rarely is the issue of the community’s marginalisation addressed.
The Government recently unveiled new measures aimed at integrating Roma people more effectively in Romanian society. Interior Minister Cristian David even announced that, as a pro bono exercise, he will prepare a project which will then be submitted for a World Bank grant to help people in Avrig, a small town in central Romania. Avrig gained notoriety because it is the home town of Nicolae Mailat, the young man of Roma origin who allegedly killed Giovanna Reggiani. Mailat, 24, comes from a poor family and as a child spent three years in a correctional school after being convicted of theft. On his release from the school, Mailat was arrested again for stealing. Mailat's mother, who says she was forced to return to Romania after her son's arrest, lives in an illegal settlement on the outskirts of the town.
She said that there is nothing for her or her family in Romania, where she has no job and no proper home, so she wants to return to Italy, where she begged on the street with her three-year-old daughter.
Even Roma activists acknowledge that it is difficult to persuade people who have been deported not to try and return to the EU.
"These people need more attention from the local authorities and more viable projects here in Romania," Marian Mandache, a lawyer with Romani Criss, a civic organization, told Balkan Insight.
"They need to be involved in professional training programs. Sure, it is not very hard to find a job, but it is hard to keep a good job if you are not a qualified worker."
20 11 2007 Deported from EU countries, thousands of Romanians with criminal records face difficulties when they return home.
By Calin Cosmaciuc in Bucharest
The Romanian government has announced plans to address the massive migration of workers to other EU countries that has taken place since the beginning of this year. The measures will require substantial resources and a fresh approach to long-standing social problems.
Observers wonder whether the relevant authorities in Bucharest and throughout the country can provide either.
When migrants come home it is often difficult for them to reintegrate in society, due to a lack of government programmes, few job opportunities and in some cases actual discrimination.
Around 23,000 Romanian citizens were deported from EU countries in the last eighteen months, according to the Romanian TV station Realitatea. Most of these people, mainly of Roma origin, have been banned from entering the EU for up to five years, having been convicted of petty crimes, mainly begging, stealing or failing to abide by the regulations that cover residence in another member-country.
Italy is the latest EU country to launch a campaign to deport Romanians on the grounds that they represent a threat to public security. This follows a wave of violent crime in Italy blamed on immigrants from Romania. One such crime was the rape and murder of 47-year old Giovanna Reggiani.
This month alone, Rome has served 177 Romanians with deportation orders, though the number who have actually left until now is smaller than that. "Forty-nine people have already been deported from Italy in November, most of them because they had been squatting on private property or because they did not have social security papers," sources within the Romanian Interior Ministry told Balkan Insight.
People who have been deported are taken into police custody at Bucharest airport. "We check their fingerprints and ask them about their specific situation. Later, they are sent home under police escort or at least escorted to a bus that will take them home," a policeman working at Otopeni Airport says. Information gathered by the police at the airport is then passed on to the local authorities, who are responsible for the deportees' situation.
Last month, Bucharest announced plans to tackle the problem of crime committed in Italy by Romanian migrants, including measures that will help support those who are sent back home.
Most of the burden will fall on local authorities, who will be obliged to offer meals and temporary accommodation to deportees who require this, along with legal support and psychiatric care where necessary. Deportees will also be offered places on vocational training programs.
"We want to find jobs for them in Romania and help fight criminality in that way. Also, we have to take measures against the people who organize networks for recruiting illegal workers," Labour Minister Paul Pacuraru says.
Those who come back to Romania voluntarily will have priority when it comes to being allocated social accommodation. Also, companies that employ these people will receive state subventions, according to the government plan. The accommodation project will be financed from European Union funds, while the company subvention scheme will be paid for out of the state budget.
However, it will not be easy to turn these plans into reality. Although the social accommodation plan has been agreed, Pacuraru pointed out to Balkan Insight that "it is very difficult to find proper houses as local authorities do not have enough suitable buildings."
Government policies are not just focused on dealing with deportees and emigrants who have failed to succeed in foreign countries. The authorities want to encourage workers to return home in order to respond to domestic labor shortages. Many left the country after Romania joined the European Union early this year, taking modestly paid jobs. As many as two million Romanians are now working abroad, mainly in Italy and Spain.
"We need people to work in construction, in the food industry, in textile factories. But while the salaries are good enough, we still face the situation that many simply refuse to do this kind of work," Pacuraru said, adding that this applies particularly to members of the Roma (Gypsy) community.
There are between 1.5 and two million Roma in Romania; the authorities routinely discuss problems affecting this community in terms of criminality, but rarely is the issue of the community’s marginalisation addressed.
The Government recently unveiled new measures aimed at integrating Roma people more effectively in Romanian society. Interior Minister Cristian David even announced that, as a pro bono exercise, he will prepare a project which will then be submitted for a World Bank grant to help people in Avrig, a small town in central Romania. Avrig gained notoriety because it is the home town of Nicolae Mailat, the young man of Roma origin who allegedly killed Giovanna Reggiani. Mailat, 24, comes from a poor family and as a child spent three years in a correctional school after being convicted of theft. On his release from the school, Mailat was arrested again for stealing. Mailat's mother, who says she was forced to return to Romania after her son's arrest, lives in an illegal settlement on the outskirts of the town.
She said that there is nothing for her or her family in Romania, where she has no job and no proper home, so she wants to return to Italy, where she begged on the street with her three-year-old daughter.
Even Roma activists acknowledge that it is difficult to persuade people who have been deported not to try and return to the EU.
"These people need more attention from the local authorities and more viable projects here in Romania," Marian Mandache, a lawyer with Romani Criss, a civic organization, told Balkan Insight.
"They need to be involved in professional training programs. Sure, it is not very hard to find a job, but it is hard to keep a good job if you are not a qualified worker."