On 12 March 2009, in the Northern Romanian city of Timisoara, the
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Romanian Immigration
Office (RIO), and the International Organization for Migration
(IOM), organized a press conference on the occasion of the official
opening of the Emergency Transit Center (ETC). The Center
accommodates persons in urgent need of international protection and
functions on the basis of the Tri-Partite Agreement signed on 8 May
2008, and ratified by the Romanian Parliament on 24 November 2008.

The ETC, the first of its kind in Europe, hosts refugees in
urgent need of evacuation from their first asylum countries due to
life threatening  conditions, for a maximum period of 6
months, during which they are resettled to third countries.

The event was presided by Assistant High Commissioner for
Refugees – Protection, Ms. Erika Feller, Mr. Toma Rus, Deputy
Head of the Department for Order and Public Safety within the
Romanian Ministry of Administration and Interior, and Mrs. Cristina
Tranca, Chief of Mission with the IOM Mission in Romania.

Ms. Feller is quoted as saying that "The importance of this
Center far exceeds the numbers of persons who will pass through it,
as it is rapidly becoming not only a key protection tool for UNHCR,
but also a very good precedent encouraging other countries in other
parts of the world to make a similar humanitarian gesture. We
extend our sincere appreciation to the Romanian authorities and IOM
for the courage and foresight to cooperate with UNHCR on this very
important initiative."

In his address, Mr. Toma Rus presented the role UNHCR and IOM
played in the founding of the ETC in Timisoara: "The cooperation of
the Romanian authorities with the UNCHR and IOM in the field of
humanitarian work and international protection has been evolving.
The first temporary resettlement operation took place in 1999, when
Romania temporarily received on its national territory a group of
refugees from Bosnia - Herzegovina and Croatia which were
subsequently resettled to the United States of America," he
stated.

Also, Mr. Rus underlined the positive responses received on the
creation of the ETC, both at European level as well as at
international level, as well as the appreciation coming from EU
Member States, but also from the United States and Canada,
countries that are involved at an even greater level in
humanitarian protection and creating durable solutions for
refugees.

"With the increasing number of EU Member States joining the
family of resettlement countries and, in as such, responding to the
UNHCR call for additional resettlement capacity, the ETC will be an
example of the European Union solidarity, as well as a unique
template to provide coordinated efforts under emergency
circumstances," said Pasquale Lupoli, Director, Operations Support
Department, IOM.

The event was attended by members of the diplomatic corps in
Romania, local and central Romanian authorities, representatives of
the Romanian business community, as well as journalists.

Background Information

On 8 May 2008, a Tri-partite Agreement was signed in Bucharest
by UNHCR, the Romanian Government, and the International
Organization for Migration, concerning the temporary evacuation in
Romania of persons in urgent need of international protection, and
their onward resettlement.

In the above mentioned Agreement, the expression "person in
urgent need of international protection" refers to refugees
according to the 1951 and its 1967 Protocol relating to the Status
of Refugees and other persons under UNHCR's mandate who are in need
of emergency evacuation from their country of first asylum and who
are temporarily admitted to Romania in view of their onward
resettlement to a third country.

 

Past efforts on Romania's behalf in this context were the
receiving, in March 1999, of a group of 4000 Serbian refugees, who
were later resettled to the USA, as well as the more recently
received group of 439 Uzbek refugees, who, after a temporary stay
on the Romanian territory, were resettled to third countries.

Since 29 November 2008 the Center has hosted a group of 38
Eritrean refugees, out of which 19 were already resettled to
Sweden, whilst the remaining are bound for Canada in March. Also,
on 16 December 2008 a group of 97 Sudanese refugees were evacuated
to Timisoara from Iraq, followed on 26 January 2009 by a second
group of 42 Sudanese refugees. All 139 refugees are bound for the
USA.