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Comparative analysis regarding the procedure for granting the refugee statute in Romania and France
Authors: Ph.D. Lecturer Mădălina COCOŞATU
Number of views: 241
Everyday realities demonstrate more and more the fact that there are people who
are constraint to leave their countries of origin, as a consequence of dangers of a nature to
seriously harm their right to life, liberty or integrity and who are forced to remain for a
period of time, or even for the rest of their lives, in the country offering them asylum. From
the analysis of the current legal framework in Romania and France, we can state that at the
level of the two states there is a tendency to give norms applicable both to the seekers of the
refugee status, as well as to asylum-seekers. In spite of the fact that the two notions cannot
be confused with one another, their common regulation is the result of the numerous
resemblances between the two institutions, such as, most times, the state that recognized the
statute of refugee as immediate protection form will also grant the right to asylum as final
protection form. Thus, both at the level of Romania, and at the level of France, the two
institutions represent humanitarian protection forms for aliens persecuted for their beliefs,
opinions or the political belonging or their belonging to a social group, or as a
consequence of their race, religion, nationality
2
, which is granted by the state by virtue of
its sovereignty. In addition, the Romanian state and the French state undertake to grant
similar rights and liberties to the refugees and asylum-seekers, equal to those of their own
citizens, out of which stands out the right not to be banished. Following the direction
imposed by the U.N. Convention of year 1951, neither Romania, nor France grant the
statute of refugee to the alien who committed a crime against peace or mankind, a serious
common law offence, outside the state, before being admitted to its territory as a refugee,
or facts contrary to the goals and principles stated by the U.N. Charter3
. By granting the
statute of refugee, the alien receives the permission to stay of the territory of the Romanian,
respective French state, he benefits of identity documents, of the right to choose his place of
residence and he may even travel freely in the same conditions as the other aliens.
.