The government is preparing a national plan to help refugees

The government is preparing a national plan to help Ukrainian refugees who have come to Romania.

So far, there are over 80.000 who have decided to stay, at least temporarily, in Romania and would be helped by the authorities to find, if they want, a job, to have access to medical care, and children - to education.

This integration will be handled by six working groups.

Next week, the European Commission will send a team to Bucharest to assess the government's spending on Ukrainian refugees and determine how they will be settled with European money.

These groups will develop, in the shortest possible time, a medium and long-term plan of measures, which will allow Romania to enter, from April, the second phase of humanitarian response.

The second phase is related to the development of quality services and an effective protection umbrella, in the medium and long term, for refugees in Romania. They are and will be beneficiaries of temporary protection.

Almost 80.000 Ukrainian citizens have chosen to stay in Romania. Of these, more than 4.000 have already applied for asylum, said government spokesman Dan Carbunaru.

He specified that the first requests for reimbursement of the expenses incurred by Romania so far have already been sent to Brussels.

Dan Carbunaru: There are 30.5 million euros already spent by our country, according to the first assessments, in the management of refugee flows. Cost structures are complex because they don't just include the cost of accommodation and food. The government has decided to provide free transport for refugees entering Romania; many of them choose to leave our country, either through Bulgaria or through Hungary.

Dan Carbunaru also said that, next week, a team of the European Commission will arrive in Bucharest, which will discuss the mechanisms for settling these expenses that Romania has made so far.

More than 3.000 Ukrainian citizens have been able to work legally in Romania since February 24, when the war in Ukraine began. Specifically, 3.012 employment contracts of some Ukrainian citizens have so far been registered in the Revisal system, 346 more than on February 24th.

Ukrainian citizens who want to work in Romania do not need a work permit for a period of nine months.

Ukrainians entering Romania receive leaflets with information on employment conditions in Romania.

So far, of the more than 480.000 Ukrainian citizens who have entered Romania since the beginning of the war, 80.000 have remained with us; 30.000 of them are children.

Translated by: Radu Matei