International mission on the Black Sea

Romanian border policemen participate in an international exercise for preventing and countering illegal migration.

In the period 05 - 09.07.2011, Romanian Border Police flagship "Stefan cel Mare" (Offshore Patrol Vessel), participates in the international exercise Black Sea Hawk 2011, which takes place in Novorossiysk - The Russian Federation.

The activity is performed in agreement to the provisions of the Memorandum signed by the heads of the Border / Coast Guards of the Black Sea littoral states within the 11th annual meeting which took place in Soci in the period 19 - 22.10.2010 and aims to improve the information exchange in the realization of the interoperability between the Border / Coast Guard of the Black Sea littoral states, to support the coordination of the operational unit and the adoption of effective measures to counter illegal activities in the responsibility area.

Vessels of the Border / Coast Guards structures from five states (the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Turkey and Romania) participate in the joint exercise.

Within the exercise, the R.B.P. vessel has the mission to intercept, to stop and inspect, with the aid of the team for boarding and control, a suspect ship involved in illegal migration activities.

After carrying out the mentioned activities, the suspect ship will be escorted in the harbour and the R.B.P. vessel crew will further inform on the performed activities by using the communications system on board.

At the same time, Romanian officers within the International Coordination Centre of the Exercise will further communicate to other border / coast guard structures, belonging to the states participating in the exercise, in integrated system, in order to fulfil all exercise phases.

Participating in this action represents an opportunity to strengthen the relations with the authorities and organizations of other countries involved in the fight against illegal migration, aiming to ensure an operative exchange of data and information.

Thirty nine illegal migrants detected at the Romanian border

At the end of the last week, Romanian Border Police Officers detected and apprehended 39 people, citizens of India, Alger, Morocco etc. trying to illegally cross the "green border".
37 illegal migrants were apprehended by border police officers within Timis Border Police County Inspectorate and 2 by those within Arad Border Police County Inspectorate.
In all the cases prior acts of criminal investigation in terms of the offense of state border illegal crossing or attempt of state border illegal crossing were drawn by border police officers.

• Between 01 - 04.07.2011, border police officers within Timis Border Police County Inspectorate apprehended several groups of migrants trying to illegally reach Schengen area.
  The 37 migrants, citizens of India, Alger, Morocco, Tunisia, Afghanistan and Lebanon were detected by border police officers within Jimbolia, Sannicolau Mare, Moravita and Lunga Border Police Sectors. As technical support, in some cases, border police officers used thermo vision technique for detecting the migrants.
  The biggest group, consisting of seven migrants, was detected in the competency area of Jimbolia Border Police Sector, on 01.07.2011. The aforementioned migrants spoke no Romanian and had no identity documents which entitled the border police officers to lead them on the premises of Jimbolia Border Police Sector, in order to sort out the situation. On this occasion was established the fact that the seven people, with ages between 20 and 54 are: three of them Algerians, one Tunisian, one citizen of Lebanon and two citizens of Morocco. All of them had illegally crossed the Serbian-Romanian border.
  In all the cases prior acts of criminal investigation in terms of the offense of state border illegal crossing were drawn by border police officers.
  At the end of the investigations some of the migrants asked for refugee status, Romanian Immigration Office taking over the cases.
• On 03.07.201, at about 02.30, a border police patrol within Nadlac Border Police Sector, Arad County, detected at about 100 meters away from the Romanian-Hungarian border, two people walking towards Hungary. Their presence in the area not being justified, they were leaded to the Nadlac Border Police Sector for further investigations.
  As a result of the investigations the fact that the aforementioned people are Algerians, with ages between 22 and 25 years old was established.
  On the name of these people prior acts of criminal investigation in terms of the offense of state border illegal crossing were drawn by border police officers.

Statistics regarding Romanian Border Police activity in the last 24 hours

In the last 24 hours, in the competence areas - meaning border crossing points and "green border" - Border Police officers detected:

• 48 illegal deeds (17 crimes and 31 penalties) committed by Romanian and foreign citizens;
• the amount of penalties reaches approximately 17,500 lei;
• undeclared goods (which were to be smuggled into the country), which exceeded the customs’ legal provisions or were suspected as being counterfeit with a total value of 70,000 lei, were detected;
• the flow of passengers and means of transportation at the border crossing points was about 131,000 people, both at the entry and at the exit and over 32,500 means of transportation.
  5 foreign citizens were refused entry due to the fact that they did not meet the entry requirements and 54 Romanian citizens were not allowed to exit Romania out of various legal grounds.