Read more:

via EU and the Balkans: When preventing migration comes before combating Roma discrimination | December 18.

Excerpt:  ”I have a wife and three kids, no work, no money and I live in a shack,” said Seladin, a Roma man in a suburb of the Macedonian capital of Skopje. “It takes some time until they deport you, but they give you a roof over your head, some food, even money. Chances are the winter will pass before I’m back.”

Rights groups say the western alarm is motivated by discrimination, and ignores the Roma plight in the Balkans. An estimated 250,000-500,000 Roma live in Serbia, most of them on the very margins of society.

“They have a right to an examination of their (asylum) application, in which the racist discrimination in their home countries is fully considered,” German refugee rights group Pro Asyl and German Roma groups said in a joint statement.”

Read more:

via Europe seeks to stem flow of Balkan asylum seekers | Reuters.

Excerpts:

“Most of the asylum seekers, according to the government report, are Roma people. German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich has referred to them as “unwanted guests,” who are “breaching Germany’s asylum policies.” Friedrich has announced intentions to add police officers to the federal agency for migration and to fast-track the asylum applications that have been filed. Most, Friedrich said, don’t demonstrate the need for political asylum, and represent cases in which people are fleeing poverty and economic ruin in their home countries.”

…

“The asylum agency of the German state North Rhine-Westphalia complained that the asylum applications from Roma people living outside the EU – such as in Serbia and Macedonia – were being more or less thrown out without being properly considered. Just because these states were looking to become part of the EU, this doesn’t mean that social discrimination and unfair treatment in labor markets don’t exist here, said Birgit Naujoks, spokeswoman for the agency.

“Serbia and Macedonia, on account of their warming to the EU, are on Germany’s ‘safe list.’ This means that Germany essentially assumes that there is no persecution in these countries,” Naujoks added. “I venture to say that if these countries weren’t on their way towards EU accession, the probe into their status would be different.”

via EU criticizes Roma asylum applications | Europe | DW.DE | 16.10.2012.

On 1 May around 15 to 20 masked individuals attacked the settlement, shouting racist slogans including “Serbia for Serbs, Roma out of Serbia.” They also drew a swastika on one of the metal containers in which the Roma are living. To date, only one suspect has been arrested; a resident of Jabučki Rit.

“The Roma forcibly evicted from Belvil have the right to live safely in their new accommodation,” said ERRC Chair, Robert Kushen. “Any re-housing plans must address the safety of Roma being forced to relocate and offer the chance of real integration and inclusion.”

Serbian authorities have a responsibility under international law to provide adequate alternative accommodation to the evicted Roma and to ensure that evicted persons are protected from further human rights violations. The ERRC called on Belgrade police and prosecutors to fully investigate the attack and bring all perpetrators to justice. The ERRC also urged Belgrade authorities to provide adequate and appropriate protection to all Roma forcibly relocated from the Belvil settlement.

Rights watchdog Amnesty International accused the Belgrade authorities of carrying out the evictions without consultation, potentially leading to families being split up and taken to locations far from where they earn a living.

Around 1,000 Roma were being removed by bus from the Belvil settlement in Novi Beograd (New Belgrade) to make way for a bus station and access road to a new bridge. Many will be housed in segregated settlements of metal housing containers.

Amnesty says it has documented at least seven forced evictions of Roma since April 2009, many of them part of a project to upgrade the city’s infrastructure with loans from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Investment Bank.

“The authorities of the city of Belgrade failed to conduct genuine and adequate consultations with the communities,” said Amnesty’s Elena Wasylew, who was at the site on Thursday.

“It is likely that the Roma will live in metal containers for several years to come,” Amnesty said in a statement.

It accused the city authorities of “blatantly flouting international standards” and said many families had been handed slips of paper on Wednesday telling them to which settlement they would be moved.

An estimated 250,000-500,000 Roma live in Serbia, most of them on the margins of society, jobless and subject to widespread discrimination.

The authorities have defended the evictions, saying they are making efforts to ensure the Roma communities are given proper documentation and their children enrolled in school.

“These children will see that they don’t have to live like this, that this is not something they are condemned to but they can live like the rest of the normal world,” Belgrade assistant mayor Zivorad Andjelkovic said.

The slums include some Roma who fled Serbia’s former southern province of Kosovo during its 1998-99 war and others sent back to Serbia from western Europe.

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Serbia+evicts+Roma+from+slum+condemned+Amnesty+International/6523081/story.html#ixzz1tNrRSXeQ

Serbia evicts Roma from slum, condemned by Amnesty International.

(Brussels, 25 April 2012) More than a thousand people, over 250 Roma families, who reside in Belvil settlement in Belgrade were told yesterday that they would be evicted on Thursday morning.

If the eviction proceeds tomorrow, the Belgrade City authorities will be blatantly flouting international standards that Serbia is party to, Amnesty International said.

“The city authorities have failed to provide information, adequate notice, legal remedies and consult people on the plans for evictions. People interviewed by Amnesty International said that they had not even been told why they are being evicted” said Nicolas Beger, Director of Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office.

The Roma families, some of whom are registered as residents of Belgrade and others who are Internally Displaced Persons from Kosovo were told yesterday they will be resettled in metal containers in four segregated settlements. Three of these resettlement sites are far away from the city and their sources of work.

People who are not registered as residents of Belgrade are being returned to their original municipalities, with dubious promises that they will be provided support.

“Most of the NGOs and the European Commission thought 40 families were going to be evicted – until yesterday when they were suddenly told that over 250 families would be evicted.”

“People were handed slips of paper telling them which container settlement they would be moved to. This makes a mockery of the international requirements of adequate notice and consultation and the city must cancel the eviction planned for tomorrow and put in a place a consultation process which adheres to human right standards”, said Beger.

The European Commission has committed to providing 3.5 million Euros for permanent housing solutions for the Belvil residents.

The European Commission must immediately call on the Belgrade city authorities to cancel the eviction planned for tomorrow and start a proper process of consultation with the residents of Belvil.

“The European Commission must be unequivocal that any financial support is contingent on the city complying with international safeguards. There must be no mixed messages suggesting that the European Commission condones the Belgrade city authorities’ blatantly flawed process for carrying out this eviction”, said Beger.

Families in the community are fearful about what will happen to them, particularly to people with health issues and their children, if the flawed eviction plans go ahead.

“They are going to demolish the house on Thursday. I don’t know where I will go. I will sleep in the park, in the street during the summer – I don’t know what I will do in winter,” said a 50 year old man from southern Serbia. He and his wife have lived in Belvil for the past six years.

via Serbia must halt forced eviction of 1,000 people from Belvil settlement – All Press releases – Press releases – Amnesty International European Institutions Office.

Macedonia plans to punish Roma who seek to apply for asylum in the EU. Behind this curb on freedom of travel are warnings from Brussels threatening Skopje’s EU aspirations.

Since December 2009, citizens of Serbia and Macedonia no longer need a visa to travel to the European Union. Many Roma from those countries see this as a chance for a better life in the West. The flow of Roma immigrants to the EU has been steadily on the rise and while many of them apply for asylum once in the EU, none has actually been recognized as a political refugee.

To stem this exodus of their Roma population, the government in Macedonia has now agreed no a package of measures. “It is intended to lower the number of those applying for asylum,” Spiro Ristovski, Macedonian minister for labor and social policies said.

EU pressure on Skopje

One of the measures planned is to block those from leaving the to country who already once tried to leave without proper documents. So called asylum abuse is to be crimialized. Whoever returns after having their asylum application turned down, will be registered on a central list which will be available to border control authorities. Those people too can then be blocked from leaving the country again.

For many Roma, asylum for the EU means hope for a better life

In December 2011, EU interior ministers gave green light to an EU Commission proposal to halt the visa freedom for the two countries should the flow of asylum seekers get to strong. Macedonia therefore is concerned that the Roma leaving their country might jeopardize their freedom to travel to the EU.

The German organization Pro-Asyl has now strongly condemned the measures planned in Skopje. But the group also points out that it in fact it was Brussels’ demands that have led to Macedonia blocking the freedom of travel for Roma. For the government in Skopje there currently is no other way to stop potential asylum applicants from travelling to the EU. Yet Brussels insists that the number of applicants to go down.

Escaping poverty

“I think it’s incredible to hinder people from moving around,” says Silke Maier-Witt of the group Forum Ziviler Friendensdienst. She currently works in Skopje on several projects aimed at integrating Roma and other ethinic minorities. “It’s been a tradition for a long time here on the Balkans: if you needed money, you went to the West to work there. What are those people otherwise to do if they don’t see any perspectives here?”

Maier-Witt has herself witnessed how difficult life is for the Roma in Skopje. “You see the whole family driving through the city on a horse carriage, collecting empty plastic bottles. In the end they don’t get more than a euro for a large pile of bottles.”

Spiro Ristovski hopes the new measures will curb the flow of Roma asylum seekers

For people who are that poor, even a hopeless asylum application is a perspective. According to a study by the European Stability Initiative think thank, a family of four applying for asylum in Germany, Belgium or Sweden will get around 700 euros a month as well as free medical care. This is much more than a poor Roma family in Macedonia would ever dream of back in their home country. The study shows that in Germany for instance, authorities take up to seven months to process an asylum application. For the Roma family this means that at least for that time they have a roof over their head and enough to eat.

Social discrimination

Roma from Macedonia are not granted asylum in any of the EU’s member states as they are not politically persecuted in their home country. Members of the Roma community are in the Macedonian parliament. The parliamentary commission that decided on the controversial measures also had a Roma member. He plans campaigns to inform the Roma community how hopeless it is to apply for asylum in the European Union.

Yet the fact that Roma are represented in parliament does not protect them from discrimination in everyday live, says Martin Stockman of the Caritas charity organization who for 15 years has been running projects to help the Roma in Macedonia. This discrimination takes various forms, he says. “People are not simply discriminated against because of the color of their skin or their ethnic background but most of all because of their social situation,” he explains. Those factors are often linked. “If you look closely it is often to simplistic to see discrimination simply along ethnic lines.”

Stockmann says that blocking Roma from travelling to the EU is an infringement of their basic rights. “We here see a conflict between the individual freedoms of each citizen and the attempt by Macedonia to come closer to qualifying for EU membership.”

Author: Alexandra Scherle / Sasko Dimevski / ai

Editor: Andrea Rönsberg

via Macedonia to block Roma from EU | Europe | DW.DE | 08.04.2012.

“We, the Roma, want to battle prejudices about being beggars and petty thieves and to demonstrate we can produce something meaningful, something that can have an impact,” the 19-year-old said this week.

via Roma hip-hop group takes message worldwide | Reuters.

Thirty-three Roma families, many of whom had fled the war in Kosovo, could be forcibly evicted from their homes in Belgrade, Serbia. The eviction has been set for the 7th of March. Take action now

If evicted, the Roma families from Belgrade  are likely to be re-housed in metal containers. Some from Kosovo have been offered places at  collective refugee centres which are not only inadequate but have already been slated for closure by the government. Others have been told that they must return to Kosovo, where they may be at risk of  discrimination, or be left homeless.

via Stop forced evictions in Serbia – 1.

This “winter tourism” can be explained by the worsening quality of life for this persecuted community not only in Serbia but also in Kosovo.

via Switzerland: Roma Travel In Search Of Winter Asylum.