“Rights of Roma returnees in Serbia − problems, needs and solutions”

Roma education creative centre (REKC), in cooperation with Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung Southeast Europe (RLS), organized a roundtable entitled "Rights of Roma returnees in Serbia - problems, needs and solutions". The roundtable, held at Hotel Palace in Belgrade on November 10 and 11, 2012, was attended by around 40 participants, representatives of the European institutions, competent authorities, politicians, international organizations, non-governmental organizations from Serbia and the European Union, local self-governments, activists and Roma returnees from Western Europe. The intention of organizers was to bring together relevant actors from Serbia and Europe to discuss issues related to the status of Roma returnees in Serbia, but also Roma migrants to Western Europe, as well as possible solutions to their current situation in terms of respect for their human rights and socio-economic status, both at local and national level of Serbia as well as in Western European states in which Roma migrate as asylum seekers. This gathering was organized as the final event of the one-year project carried out by REKC with the support of RLS. Within this project, workshops and trainings have been organized throughout Serbia in order to empower Roma activists and Roma returnees to self-organize and actively engage in the process of solving accumulated problems of this vulnerable migrant group.

The roundtable consisted of four thematic panels dedicated to certain aspects and possible solutions of this complex problem. The participants were welcomed by representatives of REKC and RLS. Dejan Marković from REKC gave a brief overview of the events that led to the migration of Roma to Western Europe in the last 20 years and to their returning to Serbia after the signing of Readmission Agreement, as well as the problems faced by this vulnerable social group in the fields of education, employment, health and social care and discrimination. Boris Kanzleiter, Head of the Office at Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung Southeast Europe, emphasized the importance of this topic for RLS as the left political option organization for which the Roma issue is particularly important because it is often related to the issue of racism. He pointed to its topicality both in Serbia and Western Europe in the context of the announcement of the possibility of abolishing the visa liberalization due to the so-called „false asylum seekers“ problem. In the introduction part of the event, the participants were also addressed by Dušan Ignjatović, Director of the Government Office for Human and Minority Rights. He pointed out that, in spite of the good legal framework in this area, Serbia has many problems when it comes to respecting the human rights of vulnerable groups, discrimination and racism. In this respect, he stressed the importance of passing the anti-discrimination strategy which was currently being developed, and which would need to take the problem of the Roma minority into account. When it comes to the issue of the so-called false asylum seekers and announced abolition of visa liberalization, Ignjatovic believes that such decision would be an "easy solution" that would not lead to a real solution to the problem while it would deepen racism in Serbia which is a fertile ground for discrimination. He also pointed out the obligation of the government to lead and coordinate efforts of various stakeholders in solving the problem and in that regard, he expressed the readiness of the Office for the participation in the process.

The first roundtable panel, moderated by Anna Striethorst from RLS Brussels, was dedicated to issues related to migration policy in the European Union and Germany. Cornelia Ernst, member of the European Parliament, talked about the current efforts of the EU regarding Roma integration issue. She pointed out the importance of the adoption of the European Strategy for the Integration of Roma from 2011. which, although not a binding document, presented a basis for the Member States for the planning and implementation of activities for the integration of Roma in the field of education, housing, health care and employment, but also opened the possibility of using the EU funds for implementation of projects in this area. However, she says that the Strategy failed to define objectives in the fight against racism and discrimination, which is an important aspect of sustainable solution of Roma issues. She also talked about the current situation in this field in some European countries that face big problems of discrimination and socio-economic status of Roma, giving examples from the Czech Republic and Hungary. She says there is a need to explain to countries in Western Europe that extremely poor living conditions make Roma people seek asylum and that understanding of this situation is important in order to terminate the pressure of the EU on the Western Balkans to prohibit its citizens from leaving the country and seek asylum. She concluded her speech by listing the most important tasks for improving the situation of the Roma population, pointing out the following: greater involvement of the Roma community in the European Union and cooperation within civil society sector, particularly Roma and non-Roma organizations on the Roma issues; use of funds combating racism in Europe; enabling free and better education for children and youth and additional education for Roma adults; social care and housing programs; fight against deportation of Roma to countries where they cannot achieve dignified living conditions and guarantee of the right to freedom of movement; recognizing Roma Holocaust.

Katina Schubert, a representative of the party Die Linke from Germany, spoke about the situation and the Roma rights in this country where there is a long-standing problem of discrimination against this minority, but also unwillingness of German policy to deal with the problem of racism against Roma, which is evident in the fact that it took 67 years for the Roma victims of the Holocaust to get their memorial in Berlin. As the Roma issue has actualized with an increasing number of asylum seekers from the Western Balkans but also migrants from Western Europe countries hit by the crisis, anti-Roma mood in Germany has increased while authorities’ common reaction is proposing abolition of visa liberalization for the countries where so-called false asylum seekers come from. She pointed out that if we want free Europe, this means that there must be equal living conditions for citizens throughout Europe while the said reactions mean giving up the idea of ​​such Europe. On the other hand, she gave a positive example - engaging the citizens of Berlin and Die Linke party in helping Roma – migrants from other EU countries who had settled in the park Kreuzberg. This case was also mentioned as an example of the need to solve numerous problems of Roma immigrants in a sustainable manner as well as the need for creating the infrastructure for self-organizing of Roma in Germany.

Kenan Emini, representative of Alle Bleiben campaign, who himself went through the experience of a migrant in Germany, spoke about the problems of discrimination faced by Roma who came to Germany as asylum seekers and how his organization was fighting for their political rights. He highlighted the problem of the status of asylum seekers - many of them receive a temporary document (Duldung) that does not give them the opportunity to realize the rights in this country (limited right to movement, work and education, etc). Emini explained the aim of the initiative All Bleiben (All stay), which was supported by a number of organizations throughout Germany and Europe, and that was to prevent discrimination and deportation of people from Germany to Kosovo and Serbia. Giving the example of Kosovo, he also pointed out that, through readmission agreements and by falsely presenting good living conditions for Roma, the issue of asylum seekers has become a "good" traded between the Western Balkans and Europe for the purpose of introduction of visa liberalization.

Karin Waringo, from the organization Chachipe from Luxembourg, spoke about the activities of her organization on the issue of readmission of Roma in the Western Balkans. Chachipe stands against the pressure exerted by the European Commission on some countries’ governments to come up with measures to reduce the number of immigrants seeking asylum. She pointed out that this pressure had caused a drastic violation of human rights in the field of freedom of movement, the right to asylum, the right to equality and non-discrimination. An extreme example of such situation is in Macedonia, whose citizens, only on the basis of their skin color, had got a label in passports indicating them as potential asylum seekers. She pointed out the absurdity of the situation in which the European Union indirectly required violation of human rights by measures to reduce the number of asylum seekers. She also spoke about the discussions taking place in the European Union regarding the validity of reasons for seeking asylum, saying that discrimination is a legitimate reason for that, defined as such by UNHCR.

After the panelists’ presentations, participants discussed previously issues raised, while panelists provided further explanations on matters within their competence. Participants were inspired to start new topics. Lena Petrović, Belgrade Center for Human Rights, mentioned that the draft of the new Criminal Code contained a disputable article that would incriminate enabling visa-free regime abuses. In her opinion, its adoption would open up more space for the violation of the rights of asylum seekers. She also mentioned the problem of the inefficiency of resolving the status of persons seeking asylum in Serbia. Miljenko Dereta, a member of the Serbian Parliament, raised the issue of representation of the Roma community and to what extent the national councils represented their ethnic community. He also stressed the need for fighting discrimination by educating the majority population. Srdjan Kamperelić, Social Democratic Union, also stressed the need for changing perception of the wider social community, where the role of the media is crucial. Vera Kurtić from the organization Women's Space and Roma Women Network pointed out the lack of action and genuine activism in solving the problem of displacement. She also said that the national councils of national minorities did not properly present the interests of their community. Following up on the issue of activism, Kenan Emini expressed his view that, unlike Europe, Serbia did not have a favorable democratic “climate” for real action against discrimination.

The second session, moderated by Dejan Marković, was devoted to personal experiences of Roma - returnees to Serbia. At the beginning of the session, the participants watched a part of the film Nakino by the author Sami Mustafa. The film draws attention to the problem of Roma returnees and it is a story about two brothers who were deported from Germany to Kosovo and thus separated from family and friends.

Erzsebet and Tibor Zaharijević talked about their experience of staying as asylum seekers in Germany where their asylum application had been rejected after several years, as well as on the problems they had encountered after returning to Serbia, especially the problem of validating daughter's school diploma. Upon returning to Serbia, they founded an organization that helped Roma returning from Western Europe to Serbia, i.e. Banat. Among the problems they face in their work, Zaharijević pointed out the lack of funds for projects and insufficient involvement of Roma NGOs in solving the problem.

Lidija Mirković, Romani filmmaker, gave several examples of mass protests in Germany organized in Germany from early 1990's to early 2000's by activists supporting the people who were about to be deported from the country. She pointed out that today, although it was easier to obtain information on Roma issues than before, there was an intimidating situation, because it often happened that the public went silent on problems while there were more and more attacks on Roma people.

The participants in the discussion provided their opinions and comments on issues raised during the two panels. Referring to Lidija Mirković’s comment on public silence, Nikola Radić Lucati said that even just leaving the responsibility to others was a sign of fascism and that the tacit agreement to ignore the problem should have been appropriately named and identified. He believes that the country that allows poverty based on national, racial and other basis produces refugees on economic basis which makes their application for asylum valid. Zlatko Ristić, who was returned to Serbia after 14-15 years of residence in Germany, talked about his bad experiences after returning, especially about issues related to language skills, education, employment, social integration. Dejan Marković said that there was a specific problem of separation from family members in cases of returning people under the Readmission Agreement. He also questioned the legal basis on which it was decided that Roma who had left SFRJ because of the war, were now returned in countries formed after the disintegration of the SFRJ, while no country of the former Yugoslavia, in fact, was not the legal successor of SFRJ.

The third panel, moderated by Vladan Jeremić from RLS, was dedicated to the topic - migration policy in Serbia.

Zarko Korać, Serbian National Assembly Deputy Speaker, said that Serbia lacked a consistent policy toward the Roma community and its specific problems and that in a long period of time very few measures had been passed in order to improve the position of this community. According to him, one of the few positive steps are the recently adopted amendments to the Citizenship Act which for the first time allowed people without identity documents (majority of them are Roma) to register as citizens of Serbia. There are national councils of national minorities, while some national communities have their own parties or their representatives in political life; however, according to him, the Roma community is not well organized politically, and its political representatives poorly represent their community. In his opinion, Serbia lacks identification of the main problems related to the Roma community, and especially the following problems: first, in the field of ​​education, where we have to ask whether the state have provided the conditions for Roma children to go to and finish school; second, in the field of employment, where unemployment figures, a large number of unemployed Roma, are also a political issue; and third, "political exodus" of Roma and the so-called phenomenon of false asylum seekers, namely the situation where people, having no alternative for better living conditions in some regions, try to move to Western Europe. According to him, announced abolition of visa liberalization would lead to increase of hostility towards the Roma community. He believes that Serbia is powerless to solve the problem of the so-called false asylum seekers, while many of the proposed measures (such as confiscation of passports of potential asylum seekers) would constitute a violation of human rights.

Miljenko Dereta, MP and former executive director of the Civic Initiatives, spoke about the failure of the state to solve the problems of the Roma population. He criticized the Draft Law on Migration, which is currently in parliamentary procedure – it provides for the competency of the Commissariat for Refugees for the issue of so-called false asylum seekers and for keeping some kind of records about them. In his opinion, assigning such authority to this institution, which has been failing to address the issue of refugees and internally displaced persons for years, will not contribute to solving this problem. He also said that the number of so called false asylum seekers in Europe was relatively small to become so important political issue, while, on the other hand, mass immigration of educated young people from this region was not found problematic, which is another indication of the growing discrimination in Europe. He also pointed out that Serbia did not have preventive and systemic approach in the field of ​​discrimination, which was evident in the state’s relation to education where the values ​​inconsistent with the principles of human rights were promoted.

Nebojša Selistarević, a member of the National Council of the Roma minority, spoke about the Council’s jurisdictions and its engagement on the issue of so called false asylum seekers, stressing that the aim of the Council is to protect the rights and ensure freedom of movement of Roma in accordance with the Constitution and international documents. He believes that employment of Roma is a priority, because it is natural that the Roma who do not have possibility to get a job leave the country in the hope for a better life. As for the contribution of the Council, he is not fully satisfied, but believes that the country has made some progress by passing strategic documents treating improvement of the Roma situation. Silistarević believes that engagement of the Roma themselves is important since they best understand the problems they face.

Matthew Newton, the OSCE Mission to Serbia, said that Serbia, although it had made progress in strengthening the institutional legal framework on migration, had big problems in its implementation. The problems are also related to the fact that the state does not have needed information; for example, there is no complete record on the people who returned to Serbia on the basis of the Readmission Agreement, because most of them have not addressed the state institutions. Further, he pointed out the need for strengthening the capacities at the local level, because returnees depend on this kind of support system most. Finally, he stressed the problem of insufficient engagement of civil society and Roma activists when it comes to cases of violation of the rights of Roma, saying that so far it had often been the case that international organizations react instead of them.

At the end of the first day of the round table, participants were keen to actively discuss a number of issues raised during the day. The following issues were discussed most: is the state discriminatory towards Roma and whether there are reasonable grounds for seeking asylum, and whether in the case of Serbia, economic reasons are in fact political reasons for seeking asylum; what are the arguments of Western countries for initiating the issue of so-called false asylum seekers; whether the Roma community is sufficiently engaged in the fight for their own rights and why it is important; why it is important that other segments of society are engaged in solving the problems of the Roma and how much the role of the international community is important; the responsibility of local governments to solve this problem, etc.

The final panel was held on the second day of the event and was devoted to issues related to institutional policy towards migrants and returnees in accordance with the Readmission Agreement. The panel moderator was Dejan Marković.

Zoran Panjković from the Office for Human and Minority Rights, talked about the steps undertaken by the state in this field since 2005, when the problem became current, and especially about the tasks of the Readmission Office at the Belgrade airport as well as the adoption of the Strategy on the integration of returnees. According to him, work on the integration was not successful enough which is proved by the fact that more than 30% of returnees return to countries of Western Europe again. Pointing out that the Strategy defined the place of residence of a returnee as a place where the problems are solved, he says that local governments have a great responsibility and they have failed to deal this problem in a right way. Also, he believes that management of funds intended for the integration of returnees should be centralized and proposes establishment of a fund for the integration that would perform such duty.

Jadranka Bubalo, Department of Employment of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, presented the work of the Ministry and the National Employment Service in this field. As a part of her presentation, the Service’s statistics on returnees were publicly presented for the first time. According to the data, there are only 64 unemployed people within the category of returnees, which does not correspond to the real situation. She believes that the reason for that is the lack of information that such persons have the possibility to exercise their rights as returnees by registering at the National Employment Service. She believes that the police should be involved in solving the problem by issuing a document proving their status of returnees. She also said that the National Employment Strategy, 2012-2020, recognized this category of citizens as vulnerable and less employable. Like other panelists, she emphasized the importance of active involvement of all stakeholders on solving this problem at the local level, pointing out the hitherto great contribution of the NGO sector.

Branislav Nikolić, pedagogical assistant in Kragujevac and Roma activist, spoke about his experience in work with Roma returnees in the area of ​​education, the problems of their inclusion in the school and pre-school system, problems with obtaining identification documents and the need for greater support from the government. Zoran Pavlović, Coordinator for Roma issues within the City Department of Health, Social Policy and Social Care of Children in Kragujevac, spoke about competencies of local authorities and readmission issues at the local level. Given that this particular group needs various types of support, he stressed the need for involvement and coordination of all stakeholders in order to address this problem at the local level.

At the end of the roundtable, participants expressed their opinions, impressions, recommendations and conclusions from the event. As it was the case during the round table, the following issues were discussed most in the final part of the event: the problems of violation of human rights and the so-called false asylum seekers in Western Europe and returnees in Serbia; the issue of discrimination against Roma in Serbia and the importance of looking at the problem in this context; whether the inability of Roma to exercise their rights in Serbia and Kosovo is the basis for political asylum; the importance of the role of the international community and the importance of the role of local Roma activist; about the great role and responsibility of the state to resolve this issue in a political way. The general conclusion is that the roundtable was an important event for exchanging the views, mapping and getting a wider perspective on this complex issue and that it represents an important initiative for action as well as the call on the cooperation of various stakeholders who should be involved in its solution.

Publication in Serbian and English language may be downloaded here  ovde

Photos: Miros i Nikola Radić Lucati

Text: Romski edukativno kreativni centar (REKC)