Oslo night shelter hosts over 7,000 Romanians

A night shelter in Oslo, run by a Norwegian NGO, housed over 7,000 Romanians in 2013, according to a report presented by Caritas Confederation. Church City Mission, a diaconal organization of the Lutheran Church, hosted the Romanians in a center with a capacity of 100 beds, reports local Mediafax. The report also reveals that the Roma immigrants issue has become increasingly more visible in Norway. “Some 5 million Norwegian crowns (about EUR 650,000) were allocated last year to ‘stop the influx of Roma people’,” according to the report’s authors. After talks with representatives of Caritas Confederation, the Norwegian organization also recommended Romania to consider the possibility to exempt NGOs that provide services from procurement procedures. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com