Gabriela Alexandrescu, the executive president of the Save the Children Romania organization, said on Thursday that during the pandemic there were the most asylum applications in our country's history, namely 6,156, of whom 1,551 children.

"It is alarming that out of the 1,551 children, 62% were unaccompanied children, children who came without their family together. This upward trend continues in the first six months of 2021, in the first half year alone, as many as 5,102 applications were submitted, of whom 1,511 minors, and 875 of them, more than half, are children alone," said Gabriela Alexandrescu during an online debate, during which the "Social inclusion of migrants through the involvement of local communities" project was launched.

The main countries of origin of asylum seekers in Romania are Afghanistan, which has more than half of the asylum applications and of the total number of children, over 70% come from Afghanistan, Syria - 15% and Iraq - 7%.

The project "Social inclusion of migrants through the involvement of local communities" is developed in partnership with the Association of Jesuit Refugee Service in Romania, with the financial support Active Citizens Fund Romania, funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through EEA 2014-2021 grants. The aim of the project is to develop a sustainable and favorable framework for advocacy actions at local and national level aimed at achieving social justice, inclusion and increasing the capacity of refugees and asylum seekers to know and demand their rights.

Gabriela Alexandrescu also drew attention to the vulnerabilities in the refugee centers, amid the worsening situation in Afghanistan.

Save the Children has been active in taking care of refugees seeking asylum since 1995.AGERPRES(RO - author: Daniel Alexandru Florea, editor: Andreea Rotaru; EN - author: Simona Iacob, editor: Maria Voican)