The information in the home country is mainly the unbiased information obtained from public sources, which is consulted and used in asylum procedures with the role of helping decision-makers, advisers and other parties involved in separate processes of assessment of the particular circumstances, establishing credibility of the applicants for international protection or highlighting the risk of ill-treatment, compared with the objective situation determined by the level of security and respect for human rights, the socio-cultural, ethnic, political, religious and geographic specificities of the country of origin, the receiving country or the transit country.

Through the Hague program of the European Council (2004) a call was made for the establishment of appropriate structures so that practical cooperation between Member States be strengthened. Since then, there have been a number of advances in the field of information in the country of origin (ITO) such as drafting the “Joint EU guideline for processing information on the country of origin (ITO)” and “The EU Roadmap on (joint) research missions on the ground”.

In 2015, the text of the Law 122/2006 on asylum in Romania with subsequent amendments was improved including with regard to the information in the country of origin (ITO), and several modifications were operated. Thus, article 13 paragraph 1 letter b refers even to assessing the situation in the countries that are crossed, by regulating also the monitoring by means of reports by specific country in order to establish some countries as safe countries of origin or safe European countries in accordance with art. 972.

In the ITO research actuality is the binding element between the time of publication of the information and the occurring of the social fact or the objective reality that surrounds us. Any personal or emotional involvement in the story about the situation in the country of origin affects the process of assessing the level of respect for human rights, influencing the final decision-making process.

The Asylum and Integration Directorate but also the six regional centers have ITO researcher specialists who provide a constant flow of analysis of the requests of information from the home country. Maintaining high quality standards is done through permanent participation in practical cooperation activities under the aegis of the European Asylum Support Office based in Malta. Romania is actively involved in networks of ITO specialists for countries of origin AFGANISTAN, IRAK, IRAN, SIRIA, SOMALIA and PAKISTAN.

The legitimacy of some relevant informative, fresh, transparent and balanced materials, is obtained nationally through a close collaboration with the civil society and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, whose constructive criticism helps improve permanently the offered services.

As long as there is a registered application for international protection, ITO can be obtained by any party involved in the asylum procedure, as follows:

• By sending an e-mail to the bito.igi@mai.gov.ro exposing briefly a few details about the case and the file number, along with three to four questions related to aspects considered relevant in solving the case, with a reply being sent within at the most 7 working days for cases in ordinary procedure, respectively within 3 workdays for cases of special procedures;
• Or by consulting national portal INDICIUM at www.portal-ito.ro and using the application form by pressing the blue button.

In order to assess the respect of human rights in countries of origin, the INDICIUM portal, administered together with our non-governmental partners, enables consultation of both specialized ITO structures by means of a simple and easy form to fill in. The portal also offers monthly newsletters, case law, guidelines and other documents of importance in the field of asylum. Users can search translated information by several criteria, they may choose by country of origin, author or document type.

For other suggestions and proposals you can contact the national coordinator of information on the home line, Mr. DAVID Felix, e-mail: felix.david@mai.gov.ro, telephone: + + 40 214501134/int.28567, fax: + 40214500479.