The Protection Granted to Refugees in Romania

• Author: Andy Pusca, Victoria Scripnic
• Pages: 203-216

The Immigrant’s Legal Status in International Law

203

The Immigrant’s Legal Status in International Law

The Protection Granted to Refugees in Romania

Andy Pușcă1, Victoria Scripnic2

Abstract: In this study we will extract from the norms referring to refugee status the types of protection that

can be granted to an asylum seeker in Romania and the necessary conditions for obtaining them. We will also

analyze the forms of protection in order to understand in detail the differences between them. Thus, in Law

no. 122 of 2006 on asylum in Romania are precisely specified three forms of protection that could be offered

to an asylum seeker. The legislator can recognize refugee status and may grant subsidiary o r temporary

protection. At the same ti me, the rights and obligations of the beneficiary of a certain form of protection will

be extracted from the existing rules. In this respect, it will be possible to differentiate b etween the asylum

seeker, the beneficiary of a form of p rotection and a foreigner who is not in the above-mentioned situations.

The difference between the first two categories of persons and the latter is presented in the national legislation

itself, the statute of which is separately regulated in distinct laws.

Keywords: refugee; protection; migration; asylum

1. Introduction

In general, a refugee, as provided for in the 1951 Convention, is a person who is in a situation of being

persecuted because of race, religion, nationality, belonging to a particular social group, or his political

opinions, as well as other grounds listed in national rules, causing fear for his and his family’s safety.

However, they can request asylum and other categories of people who are not considered refugees but

still need protection. However, the dilemma relates to explaining terms such as refugee, asylum and

protection in a larger context and trying to understand the differences between the forms of protection

generated by the situations in which category a person is.

Addressing this issue is not by chance, the interest in regulating the protection of the individual

refugee was generated by some international political events in which our country was also drawn as a

member of the European Union. Armed conflicts in the countries of the East have forced the civilian

population to seek protection, thus generating the arrival of a large wave of refugees in the territories

of the Member States, have created divergences within the European Union, in the context of

establishing a balance between Member States' efforts to receive such persons. The massive influx of

displaced persons and the refusal of the Member States to assume the responsibilities and

consequences of this reception have led to some drastic decisions by the European Union, with quotas

1 Associate Professor, PhD, Faculty of Law, Danubius University of Galati, Romania, Address: 3 Galati Blvd., Galati

800654, Romania, Tel.: +40372361102, Corresponding author: andypusca@univ-danubius.ro.

2 Tutor, PhD Student, University of European Studies of Moldova, Republic of Moldova, Address: Ghenadie Iablocikin 2/1

Str., Chisinau 2069, Republic of Moldova, Tel.: +373 22 509 122, E-mail: victoriascripnic@univ-danubius.ro.