Improving the Regulatory Framework for the Legal Status of Applicants for International Protection in the Context of the implementation of Relocation Mechanisms

• Author: Tache Bocaniala
• Pages: 62-67

European Integration - Realities and Perspectives. Proceedings 2016

62

Improving the Regulatory Framework for the Legal Status of Applicants

for International Protection in the Context of the implementation of

Relocation Mechanisms

Tache Bocaneala1

Abstract: The unprecedented refugee crisis facing the European Union, the impossibility of some Member

States unable to cope and to process the massive flow of people on th eir borders and blocking the “Balkan

Route” that moved towards the states where they wanted to reach, led the pressing need for putting in place

new instruments to manage the situation. The mechanisms of relocating refugees, the principle of solidarity

through quotas imposed on member states put to the authorities in these countries, implicitly in Romania, a

number of issues with great difficulty in solving them. By the present study we have highlighted some of

these issues in connection with the specific legal status of refugees resettled in other countries in Romania

and any possible solutions to solve them.

Keywords: refugees; migrants; relocation, asylum application, restrictive measures

1. Introduction

Both in everyday language and in the specialized literature it does not always make a distinction

between the term refugee as defined by the Convention on the Status of Refugees, signed at Geneva on

28 July 19512 and the term of “migrated” which means, usually, the person moving to another country

for economic reasons.

In 2015, according to official statistics, more than 1.25 million refugees, driven out by wars,

persecution or poverty, have sought asylum in EU countries.

The expansion of the ISIS terrorist group and the extension of the devastating war in Syria have

caused exponential growth of refugees in this area3. These refugees were added to the growing number

of refugees from other conflict zones such as those in Afghanistan, Libya, and the multitude of

immigrants from other countries and especially from Pakistan, Eritrea, Iran, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt,

Nigeria, etc.

In the recent years and especially during 2015, the complex consisted of Mediterranean See and the

Aegean Sea has become the “epicenter” of migration towards the developed countries in Europe, the

1 Senior Lecturer, PhD, Danubius University of Galati, Romania, Address: 3 Galati Blvd., Galati 800654, Romania, Tel.:

+40372361102, Corresponding author: tache.bocaniala@univ-danubius.ro.

2 Convention on the Status of Refugees, signed at Geneva on 28 July 1951, to which Romania adhered by the Law no.

46/1991 for Romania's accession to the Refugee Convention and Protocol on Refugees.

3 According to Eu rostat, in 2015 the number of asylum seekers from Syria has do ubled and reached 362 775 people and the

number of Iraqi refugees has increased seven times and reached 121 535.