Ukraine Response: IOM Romania's private sector partnerships

In order to respond promptly to the needs of people fleeing Ukraine, IOM Romania scaled-up its partnerships developed over time with private economic partners, and developed new ones. Throughout the Ukraine Response, IOM Romania have offered a wide range of support in collaboration with the following private sector partners:

From October 2023 to May 2024, IOM Romania partnered with Amazon to provide much-needed clothing and other items to refugees from Ukraine. Amazon’s generous donation specifically consisted of 97,173 assorted items of clothing and 2,190 packs of soap, where each pack had 3 soap bars. As of 31 May 2024, all these items were successfully distributed to people in need all across Romania by IOM Romania and our partners countrywide. We reached over 35,000 individuals all across the country, including over 25,000 Ukrainian refugees, more than 500 other third-country nationals, and over 8,500 vulnerable Romanian people, such as Roma and people experiencing homelessness.

The distribution of these vital goods has been carried out in collaboration with several key stakeholders, ensuring swift and efficient delivery to those in need. In particular, the Directorate General for Social Assistance in Bucharest (DGASMB), played a crucial role in carefully packing the boxes and distributing at RomExpo in Bucharest, while the Department for Emergency Situations (DSU) and Inspectorate General for Emergency Situation (IGSU), both part of the Romanian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MAI), helped to facilitate the transportation of much of the goods to counties across Romania. The continuous support from our dedicated partners has been instrumental in ensuring that these essential items reached those most in need.

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In 2022 and early 2023, based on previous cooperation, IOM Romania initiated the negotiation of a regional partnership with Airbnb to connect people fleeing from Ukraine to free, short-term housing in Poland, Moldova, Romania, Hungary, and Slovakia. This partnership provided temporary housing adapted to their accommodation needs over the coming weeks and months for all those fleeing the war in Ukraine. These stays were free and were funded by Airbnb, Inc., donors to the Airbnb.org Refugee Fund, and the generosity of hosts through Airbnb.org. All Airbnb fees were waived for Airbnb.org refugee stays. IOM, Airbnb and Airbnb.org have a history of partnering to support the refugee community around the world and have worked together to offer housing to Syrian and Afghan refugees in Romania.

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IOM Romania partnered with Edenred Romania to provide social vouchers to Ukrainians fleeing the conflict. The social vouchers were used to cover the basic needs and complemented the assistance provided by the central and local authorities. Edenred Romania is one of the largest companies that distributes vouchers to employees, as part of the system of benefits associated with salary. In the context of the refugee crisis in Ukraine, the company partnered with two major international organisations, the Red Cross and IOM, in order to provide assistance to people leaving Ukraine. Specifically, employees who receive benefits in the form of vouchers can redirect some of them to refugees. The two organisations distributed vouchers to migrants who can buy food and other basic necessities from stores such as Auchan, Kaufland, Cora, Lidl, Carrefour, Penny, and Mega Image.

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IOM Romania partnered with Synevo Romania to provide a series of free laboratory tests as well as testing for the identification of Sars-CoV2 virus (by rapid antigenic tests and RT-PCR) to all refugees from Ukraine as well as third country nationals (TCNs) fleeing the war. Synevo Romania is part of Medicover AB, an international medical and diagnostic services company, headquartered in Sweden, listed on the NASDAQ Stockholm Stock Exchange. At the same time is the largest provider of laboratory diagnostic services in Romania, offering over 2,000 types of common and advanced analysis in all areas of clinical laboratory diagnosis.