The refugee crisis caused in the Republic of Moldova by the war in Ukraine caught the authorities unprepared. Therefore, nonuniform practices were applied in similar situations. In general, a common electronic program needs to be designed for registering the Ukrainian refugees. The information on paper is less safe, also in terms of the keeping and protection of personal data. The recommendations were formulated by experts of the Foreign Policy Association (APE) and other representatives of civil society who took part in a project together.
In a press club meeting staged at IPN News Agency by the APE, Valentina Caledji-Poghirc, expert of the Comrat-based European Center “Pro-Europa”, said the dialogue between the public authorities and the local authorities and with representatives of civil society should be improved, especially in crisis situations. In the management of the Ukrainian refugee crisis, they identified not really efficient communication that resulted in the application of nonuniform practices and individual decisions taken by each player at different levels.
According to her, the creation of a database of Ukrainian refugees will contribute to standardizing the practices applied by the players involved in the management of the refugee crisis and will allow access at different levels. Also, the existence of an electronic program would enable the refugees to register even individually and the authorities of all levees will have access to these data.
Vitalie Guțu, executive director of the platform “Security Zone”, spoke about the refugees who left Ukraine for the Transnistrian region. Even if the authorities from the left bank of the Nistru refuse to respond when they are asked about the war waged by Russia in Ukraine, refugee centers were set up there. But most of those refugees returned to their native places as they were born in localities of the Transnistrian region. The integration of the Ukrainian children into the education system is one of the problems they identified. Many of these children are discriminated by mates. Some of the families had to opt for distance learning. The misinformation of locals who watch Russian TV channels is another problem.
Dumitru Pelin, executive director of Nord News, noted that since the first days, weeks, months of the war, the Moldovans living in the northern districts showed rare mobilization even if many of the citizens in the region sympathize with the dictator from the Kremlin. The coming of the first Ukrainian refugees to the northern districts showed that the propaganda machine of Moscow was ineffective in the face of pain and compassion. It happened the same in the case of representatives of the authorities with views of the left, who managed to pitch tents for the refugees, to mobilize economic entities, etc.
The project “Contribution of Civil Society to Countering New Hybrid Threats as a Response to Refugee Influx: Active Resilience Approach of the Republic of Moldova” is implemented by the APE in partnership with Nord News, the European Center “Pro-Europa” of Comrat and the platform ”Security Zone”, with a grant provided by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, with support from the British Government.
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