Amalia's story. Work in the field of refugee protection.

This is a story that shows the importance of perseverance and fighting for people's rights and safety.

Dear Amalia, thank you so much for agreeing to this interview. You said you were nervous. What kind of emotions are they?

I'm usually the one who asks questions to the beneficiaries, but it's fine, we're role-playing now.

Just to let things flow, how have things worked out for you, Amalia? How and when did you get into this job? Tell us, please, look back a little bit.

It's been a while. In October 2014 I had the interview with Mr. Niculae Cârcu and I'm so glad that he gave me this opportunity to work at CNRR. At the beginning, yes, I was nervous and worried that maybe I wouldn't be able to cope or that it would be difficult, but look, after 9 years, I'm still here, I want to stay and I hope we have longer projects in the future. I don't see myself doing anything else and it's a job that I really enjoy and that represents me and is a part of me. Maybe I haven't had the chance to thank Mr. Cârcu face to face so far, but, yes, I would like to thank him very much for this opportunity, because it changes you as a person.

It is not just a job, but every day you have the opportunity to meet different people with different life stories and different problems, marked by war or other reasons of persecution, and who had to maybe leave their country of origin forever. I don't think it is easy to plunge into the unknown in the hope that you will find a place where you can live in safety. It is even more difficult when you do not know the language of that country, sometimes not even an international language, the legislation or the culture.

That's why I find it very nice and I couldn't see myself doing anything else, because I don't think there is another place like this, where you can meet people from different backgrounds and cultures. I've always been fascinated by cultural diversity and all these years it has made its mark on me and I'm glad that even now, after 9 years, I continue to be surprised every day to learn new stories, to be in new situations where I have to think about how to manage, what I can improve, how I can help others more. And that's a constant challenge that you don't find anywhere else.

You like the challenge, then?

I also like the challenge, and I also like meeting people. I like to listen to their stories even if some of them are sad or painful, I like to be with them and help them find the legal solutions to start a new life in Romania. It seems to me that this is how we change each other. Positive change in the community often starts with the direct involvement and support people give to each other. I mean, apart from the legal information and advice related to the asylum procedure, the documents, the most beautiful thing for me is the fact that you interact with people and that it leaves a mark on your soul and you on theirs.

If we are talking about marks, what are the most striking ones?

There are so many stories collected over the years. Many extraordinary people that I had the opportunity to meet. Some of them didn't stay very long and maybe we didn't have time to create a very close bond, but there were also cases where, years later, we still keep in touch. It's a nice perspective on the continuity of life and the impact we have on each other at different stages.

I just remembered a boy from Syria, for example, who was in the General Inspectorate for Immigration in 2015. His wife and her family had been in the UK for a couple of years, they had a form of international protection there and we started the legal steps for the family reunification procedure under the Dublin regulation, except that it is a procedure that takes quite a long time, it is tedious and it took about 8-9 months before the actual transfer took place.

At the beginning he was not very good in English, we had a hard time communicating, but staying longer in the center, we somehow got along. He started to learn the language better and got a job. He came to us whenever he had difficult moments when he felt like giving up and running away, and we were there with him, trying to convince him to stay, to be patient, to wait.

We all rejoiced when he was transferred to the UK, but what impressed me the most was when he sent me a video of the moment when he and his wife were reunited at the airport. I still have the video and every time I watch it, my colleagues and I get tears because he was somehow, "our boy" and we were so happy for him when I saw him at the airport with flowers running to his wife and hugging her, then the rest of the family waiting for him and happy to see him after so long, and in the background there was a song in Arabic of love and it was like a moment from a movie.

These are the moments that give you satisfaction when you see that you didn't work for nothing and that you made an impact in someone's life. And what I loved the most was that when his wife had her first baby boy, he called me from the hospital to share this important moment in their lives. Now she has a second child and they are a beautiful family. Every time I spoke to him and his wife they told me that if I ever get to the UK I should visit them, that I am like a second family to them. In such long-term connections, it is possible to observe how people grow, develop and overcome various challenges. These are the moments that keep you going even if you also encounter difficulties. It's a lot of work, but it's those parts that are really rewarding.

What stories do you remember now after almost 9 years? How many stories a year do you have, Amalia?

There are many and I could tell them for a whole day. For example, right now I am assisting a family in Afghanistan, a more complex case. Last year, an unaccompanied minor from Afghanistan was the victim of an accident when he tried to enter Romania with other Afghan migrants. The car they were in overturned and unfortunately 2 died and 10 were injured. The boy ended up in hospital, he is now paralyzed with a tracheotomy. I also want to thank an amazing boy who has helped him and other boys in Afghanistan with difficult situations, Calum, who has looked after him and is still looking after him and now his family.

I have been with him throughout the asylum procedure at the administrative stage, I also assisted him at the interview for the determination of international protection. Fortunately he was granted refugee status, and then we started the reunification procedure with his parents. He also had his parents and three younger sisters in Afghanistan, but unfortunately we had to work in stages, because the legislation only allows reunification with the parents.

We started the reunification procedure with the parents, which was approved by the General Inspectorate for Immigration, and the next step was to get a visa from the Romanian embassy in Pakistan, as we do not have an embassy in Afghanistan. One of the problems was that the mother did not have a travel document and in the current context in Afghanistan it was extremely complicated to obtain, so she had to go illegally from Afghanistan to Pakistan. They managed to get both their parents to Pakistan and to go to the Romanian Embassy where they were issued visas to come to Romania. Then we ran into another obstacle because the mother had entered Pakistan illegally and could have problems with the Pakistani authorities at the airport when boarding. After many phone calls and searches we found the contact details of IOM Pakistan who also dealt with these situations and who were very open and offered us support to solve the paperwork to be able to leave Pakistan legally, and accompanied them to the airport, being in constant contact with them and with me.

After the parents arrived in Romania and received a form of international protection, we started the reunification procedure for the three younger sisters from Afghanistan. The reunification application was approved by the General Inspectorate for Immigration and they were then to go to the Romanian Embassy in Pakistan. As unaccompanied minors aged three, five and seven, it was quite difficult for them to leave Afghanistan and they went with their grandmother to Pakistan. They went to the Embassy to get visas and again I contacted IOM Pakistan for support. Then there were problems with the airline, as they were unaccompanied minors, a lot of declarations had to be made by their parents. It was almost 2 months of hurdle after hurdle.

After two months, when they finally arrived at the Otopeni airport and their parents sent me a picture that they were here, it was a moment of relief and joy that finally the miracle had happened and they had arrived in Romania. The whole procedure from when I applied for the reunification of the parents until the girls arrived took almost 1 year, but luckily it's a happy ending and now they are all together, they are safe and have a chance for a new life.

What countries are the people you assist from?

They were from a lot of different countries. We have, mainly from Syria, who came mostly in 2015-2016, but also now. After that came the period where they came in a pretty big wave from Iraq. Now there are many from Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal. Since the situation got worse in Sudan, they started coming in from there. We had some from Somalia, Eritrea, Iran, Afghanistan, even Armenia.

If you were to make an estimate, how many people have you assisted over the years, Amalia?

I think there were over a thousand people assisted individually, but as groups, many more, because thousands of applicants passed through the center of accommodation and procedures in Timisoara every year.

In your opinion, what do all these people have in common? Is there something that unites them?

First of all, no one leaves their country because it's a good place to live, and I think this is very important to understand, that people are often forced to abandon their homes in search of a place to find protection and to rebuild a new life because of conflict and human rights abuses. Because it is not easy to leave your country, your family, your friends.

Could you describe a case of an unaccompanied minor to someone who knows nothing about it? For example, someone comes from Syria, he's an unaccompanied minor. How does he end up in Romania?

I'll give you an example. A year or so ago, there were two children, a girl and a boy. They were not siblings, they came with their uncles from Syria: they crossed Turkey, Greece, the Balkan route. The little boy was quite traumatized and he told me that on the way, at one point, he fell into a river, almost drowned and ended up in hospital.

He was quite traumatized and he was very angry with his parents, who had promised him that he would go by plane, that he would get to Germany and that everything would be nice. But it was not at all like that and the journey to Romania was extremely complicated for both of them. There were many moments when they were crying and upset, while I was trying to explain the asylum procedure or the reunification procedure to them on a level adapted to their age.

Fortunately, the girl had relatives in Germany and the boy had relatives in Germany and Sweden. I started to contact the families, the relatives, to support them with the legal steps to submit the documents to the General Inspectorate for Immigration to start the reunification procedure with the family members in Germany. For the little boy it was more complicated because initially his reunification application was rejected by the German authorities, after that we took steps to start the reunification procedure with relatives in Sweden, so it took almost a year before he received a positive answer and was transferred to Sweden. There were many difficult moments for them.

Even though these children were close in age, 11 and 12, the girl was very mature. She was telling us that she came to Europe to bring her family, to bring her mother, that she came to rescue her and to start a new life in safety. She was an 11-year-old child and you could talk to her like an adult. It was kind of frustrating in a way and it seemed unfair that a child would end up being so traumatized and exposed to so many dangers on the road. Luckily they were both reunited with their relatives and made it to Germany and Sweden but if you think about the experience they had along the way, I think it will be quite difficult for them to manage and that leaves deep scars.

Arriving in Romania, what happens to these unaccompanied minors?

These children left their country of origin accompanied only by their uncles. When they were detected near the border, their uncles did not want to apply for asylum and as they were illegally residing in Romania according to the law, they were taken to the public custody center in Horia, and the minors were taken to the Center of Child Protective Services. The uncles preferred to be returned to Serbia, then they moved on and left the children in Romania. Together with my colleague, who is a cultural mediator, we went to the minors many times to counsel them and we kept in touch with both the children and their relatives. We managed to get the documents from the parents and relatives to start the reunification procedure with the relatives, submitted them to the General Inspectorate for Immigration and supported them throughout the procedure.

Who takes care of the child during this time? The Romanian state?

Unaccompanied minors are in the special child protective system and are accommodated in centers of the General Directorate for Social Assistance and Child Protection. It is more difficult, because there are no specialized centers for unaccompanied foreign minors, where they have a cultural mediator, an interpreter. It is also more difficult for the staff, not knowing the language, to get along with them and for the children to interact with the people there. In addition to the trauma of leaving their country of origin, this part of the language and cultural barriers adds new barriers.

Have you kept in touch with anyone who is over 18 now?

I had a very nice experience with a beneficiary from Afghanistan who was an asylum seeker in 2015-2016 in Timisoara and he was an unaccompanied minor, he was around 15 years old. Having an uncle in Norway we did the same, i.e., we contacted family and relatives to send us the necessary documents to support him to submit them to the General Inspectorate for Immigration to start the reunification procedure with his uncle.

It took quite a long time before he received the answer from the authorities. I remember him coming to the office many times and crying and saying that he couldn't take it anymore. It was even more difficult because he didn't speak English and then we would call a translator or another applicant who could help with the translation.

Last year I had the opportunity to go to a training in Oslo in Norway. As we were still Facebook friends, I wrote to him and we had the chance to meet for coffee. He is now an adult, 24 years old. He has completed his studies, he is working, he is doing well, he is integrated and I was really happy that he remembered me and that we saw each other and I was able to discover how things have evolved for him.

It's a really special feeling to see how people you knew before have grown and achieved success.

What other cases can you tell us about?

There is one case that is very close to my heart. It's about a beneficiary from Sudan who struggled for three years in Romania until he received a form of international protection. He was initially rejected at the administrative stage by the General Inspectorate for Immigration, then we challenged the decision and it was also rejected by the court. In the meantime, the situation in Sudan worsened and I applied for access to a new asylum procedure, but it was rejected, then I appealed and went to court again and he was finally granted refugee status. We applied to the General Inspectorate for Immigration for family reunification and the application was approved and he finally managed to bring his wife and little boy to Romania. I found it touching that he never saw his little boy because his wife was pregnant when he left Sudan and when they arrived in Romania it was the first time he held his son.

I was happy when they came to the office and I had the opportunity to meet his wife and son in person and to see how his face had totally changed, that he was happy, serene and that after more than 3 years they are together again. It is truly inspiring that despite all the initial setbacks and rejections, the family finally managed to come together.

It is a story that shows the importance of perseverance and fighting for people's rights and safety.

Those moments when you feel that you have had a significant impact on these people's lives and helped to create a new beginning for them are very important.

In this case, for example, it's wonderful that the legal process and the efforts made led to the reunification of a family and the granting of refugee status.

It is a powerful reminder that every contribution, no matter how small it seems, can make a significant difference in people's lives. And yes, it's a great feeling to know that you've been a part of the journey and had a positive impact on their lives.

However, each case is unique and comes with its own challenges and successes.

Looking back on almost 9 years of working with refugees, what do you think has changed in the meantime, Amalia?

It is obvious that the dynamics of migration and asylum applications have changed significantly over the years. When I started working in the accommodation and procedures center there was the wave of asylum seekers from Syria, then the wave of asylum seekers from Iraq. Now the situation has changed a bit. There are a lot of migrants who come legally with work visas from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, but who try to go further into Europe and get caught at the border, where they end up claiming asylum, even if they are economic migrants. But we also continue to have asylum seekers from Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea, Afghanistan or other countries where tense situations have remained constant and, unfortunately, these regions continue to be affected by conflict, instability and human rights violations.

If we look at what happened last year, the situation, yes, has changed a lot with the war in Ukraine. It is a telling example of how conflicts in a region can generate waves of migration and affect people's lives in a profound way.

When a conflict occurs in a neighboring country, the impact is felt directly and can create a state of uncertainty and fear.

In such situations, community support and a humanitarian approach become crucial to provide relief and protection to those affected.

When you tell the people around you, the Romanians, what kind of work you do, what do they say, how do they react, what do they think about all your work?

There is a generally positive and open atmosphere in the Timisoara community towards refugees and asylum seekers. Probably, the experience with a diverse community of foreigners for many years has contributed to a greater understanding and acceptance. It is nice to see that people feel welcome and are integrating into a new environment, which can have a significant impact on their emotional state and their adaptation process.

Of course, every experience is unique and exceptions may exist, but the fact that the majority of refugees feel at home and do not encounter any noticeable problems is an encouraging sign. Every small step towards mutual understanding and support can have a significant impact in people's lives and in building a more harmonious society.

Finally, promoting values of tolerance, understanding and solidarity within the community is essential to build a society where all members feel respected and supported.

And what does the exception look like, who are the exceptions?

Prejudices and stereotypes, often perpetuated by the media, can contribute to a distorted image of cultural groups, including Muslims.

An open approach and correct information can play a key role in countering these prejudices. I believe that explaining cultural and religious differences in an open and friendly way can help to dismantle prejudice.

Personal stories and concrete examples can bring people closer and highlight similarities rather than differences.

And last question, how do you take care of yourself so that you can be of service to others? You give a lot and it sounds very easy from what you say, but I know it's not. How do you keep being positive?

Working in refugee protection has brought me into direct contact with the difficult realities that people can experience and it has changed me a lot. It made me appreciate more what I have, realize how lucky we are to live in Romania and to have security and peace of mind. Sometimes we get lost in little details and don't realize how privileged we are.

When you see how many problems there are in other countries and the fact that people are forced to leave their homes because of conflicts in search of a place where they can be safe, you wake up and realize that you don't have any problems, that you are fine and you are trying to help others to be fine.

I believe that an essential key to maintaining balance is to be able to turn positive energies into a source of support in difficult times.

Last but not least, I have great colleagues who have become my friends, we support each other and are always there for each other. Having colleagues with whom you enjoy working and with whom you share moments of joy can make every day more enjoyable. On this note I would like to thank them and express my gratitude.

This story is part of the "Human Stories" collection, which illustrates the voices of refugees in our country and their unique experiences. The interview took place in June 2023.