The first Romanian citizens repatriated from Gaza, brought to the country under the assistance of Prime Minister Ciolacu

Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu traveled yesterday to Cairo, Egypt, to bring to the country the first 100 Romanian citizens who managed to leave the Gaza Strip and who previously requested the Bucharest authorities to facilitate their repatriation after the outbreak of the conflict between Israel and the Hamas terrorist group that controls that territory. Following the intervention of the head of the Government and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the respective citizens were repatriated by a flight of the national airline Tarom, on board which was Prime Minister Ciolacu, as well as citizens of the Republic of Moldova, also evacuated from the Gaza Strip, and to whom The Romanian MFA grants them support in order to repatriate to their own country.

The move of Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu to Egypt seems at least strange if we take into account the statements made by the head of the Government almost a month ago, after the outbreak of the conflict in Israel. Thus, on October 11, 4 days after the terrorist attack by Hamas members in the Israeli kibbutzes on the border with the Gaza Strip and after the 5000 rockets fired from that area towards several Israeli cities, when asked about the repatriation of Romanian citizens in Israel, either on religious pilgrimage, or settled in that country, Marcel Ciolacu said: "There are no humanitarian flights. We cannot turn Romania and Romanian companies into the Red Cross. Depending on those who moved and were repatriated, depending on their income, the Romanian state, to certain vulnerable people, in terms of income, will return the money. Moreover, I saw a fixed price at Tarom of 350 euros. I thank the people at Tarom for the decision, because they, in fact, with this price, only covered their actual costs. Moreover, you saw that many companies did not take risks. Tarom did it. There were 10 aircraft from Tarom, 8 private aircraft that made this transport, over 1,709 Romanians who were repatriated. I have only one request, let's understand that at this moment in Israel there is a war. Let us understand the seriousness of the situation and that we cannot make a pilgrimage during this period, because there are Romanian citizens who perhaps did not pay enough attention to the warnings of the Romanian state and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and continued to go to Israel, where they found that they would in fact have to to return urgently, because the pilgrimage is a bit closed. Let's stop testing each other. I think that vulnerable people...is an additional cost that comes to this return before the scheduled time and the ticket they had, I don't think it's a problem for the Romanian state".

Only a month after this statement, the head of the Government turned around and claims that the repatriation of Romanian citizens who are not in Israel, but in Gaza, is a problem of our state. He no longer talks about vulnerable people - although among the returnees from Gaza there are also doctors and medical assistants who have Romanian citizenship -, nor about the transformation of the Tarom company into the Red Cross. The same thing did not happen with the repatriates from Israel, for whom no government representative was waiting for them at the Otopeni airport a month ago.

According to the details of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted on the official website of the public institution, following the complex efforts of the Interinstitutional Crisis Cell, through the Romanian Embassy in Cairo and the Romanian Representative Office in Ramallah, a number of 93 Romanian citizens and members of their families left the Gaza Strip through the Rafah (Arab Republic of Egypt) border crossing on Tuesday. The 93 Romanian citizens and their families were picked up from the Rafah border crossing point by representatives of the Romanian Embassy in Egypt and were accompanied to Cairo by a mobile team from the Rapid Reaction Unit of the Crisis Cell of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, after which they will be sent to the country by means of special air flights.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also informs that following the agreement sent by the Israeli and Egyptian authorities for a further number of 51 Romanian citizens from the Gaza Strip and their family members, they transited the Rafah border crossing point and entered Egypt yesterday the necessary assistance was provided to Cairo, from where they will be transported to Romania.

At the same time, the Interinstitutional Crisis Cell, through the diplomatic missions in Cairo and Tel Aviv, continues the dialogue with the Egyptian and Israeli authorities in order to complete the evacuation operations for the other Romanian citizens and their family members who requested support and are still in in the Gaza Strip.