NO LAND – NOWHERE ?
Possibilities of Return for Roma Refugees to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Results of an Investigation Journey to Belgrade in December 2002
Karin Hopfmann
Spokeswoman for Refugee Policy
Editor:
PDS- Parliamentary group in the Lower House of Berlin
Niederkirchnerstr. 5
10 111 Berlin
Tel.: 030 / 23 25 25 24
Fax: 030 / 23 25 25 25
e-mail:
December 2002
Picture on the front page: refugee family in the settlement Mali Leskovac/Belgrade
Preface
Since the beginning of the 1990s there are, among thousands of refugees from the succession states of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, numerous refugees belonging to the Roma. A first wave of refugees came in connection with the civil war which began in 1991. A second one followed in 1999 as the conflicts in Kosovo sharpened and as a result of the NATO-attacks on Serbia and Kosovo. Today 60.000 Roma refugees from Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo are estimated to be staying in the Federal Republic of Germany.[1]
Already the precarious situation of the Roma in Bosnia-Herzegovina wasn't taken into consideration in the resettlement policy of 1996. Also after the renewal of the reintegration agreement between the ministries of the interior of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia no consideration of the Roma's conditions of living in Yugoslavia is noticable.
Yet a refugee policy building on human rights and the principle of humanity can not be a policy of "disposing" people to their country of origin without examining whether the conditions are worth living in and leaving the responsibility to the country of origin not asking for its realities and possibilities. Furthermore it puts pressure and compulsion on refugees regarding the question of return leading as far as to a forced deportation.
With regard to the history of persecution during the Nazi-dictatorship and the murder of approximately 500 000 Roma throughout Europe to now threaten Roma refugees, who like the Jews became victims of the holocaust, with compulsary deportation is extremely incomprehensible and politically unacceptable. Yet this argumentation is not taken into consideration by German politicians. The conference of the federal states' ministers of the interior at the beginning of December 2002 even turned down a partial solution for Roma families from Yugoslavia living in
Germany for many years.
As long as there is no noticable acceptance for a particular political responsibility towards Roma refugees from Southeast Europe, there remains only the attempt of drawing attention to the precarious situation of the Roma as a marginalized group of societies in Eastern Europe; to refer to the forms of their discrimination - accepted by society and the state - and the social consequences in order to demand their right to stay for humanitarian reasons. Such a humanitarian agreement would open a new perspective on life to thousands of young people and finally break the never-ending cycle of disadvantaging and disintegration in the dominant society. Also for the Roma living in Yugoslavia such change is hoped for in the future. Something seems to get moving since the new law of supporting minorities was passed. In the present situation the large majority of the Roma and their children have no chance for acceptance and integration. Most seriously affected by the disadvantaging are ten thousands of Roma refugees from Kosovo, so-called IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons).
My visit to Belgrade from 3rd to 7th of December 2002 served to investigate the actual situation of the Roma in Serbia and Kosovo in the eyes of international and national organisations, among them independently working Roma organisations and state-run institutions. Furthermore I visited one of the numerous Roma settlements on the outskirts of Belgrade. Only after having acknowledged the actual conditions of living, the question of whether the responsibility for sending back refugees is to be accepted can be answered.
I had the opportunity to speak to the following institutions, organisations and individuals:
Mathijs Le Rutte, Legal Officer, UNHCR, Office Belgrade
Caroline Harvey, Human Rights Officer, UNHCHR Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Dr. Sanda Raskovic-Ivic, Commissioner for Refugees of the Republic of Serbia
Stephan Mueller, Stephane A. Jeannet, Roma Integration and Empowernment Strategy Team of the Federal Ministry for Minority Policy
Petar Antic, Centre for Minority-rights
Dejan Markovic, District-ordered and member of the Executive Committee of Belgrade
Mitrovic Zivojin, Chairman of the Party of the Roma Unity and director of the Humanitarian Organisation Romsko Srce
Dragan Lalosevic, Fond Za Humanitarno Pravo, Belgrade
Milica Simic, RCC co-ordinator, Roma Children Center, Belgrade
Dr. Aleksandra Mitrovic, Vorsitzende der Society for the Improvement of Local Roma Communities
Slavica Vasic, Romksi Zenski Centar BIBIJA, Belgrade
Prof. Irina Subotic, Art-historian, sister of the co-founder of the Yugoslavian peace-movement and initiator of the organisation Grupa 484, Belgrade, Jelena Santic (who died in the year 2000)
Drmaku family, in November 2002 deported to Belgrade after 13 years of living in Dülmen, administrative district of Coesfeld, now staying at a brother's in Smederevo
I owe Ms. Vesna Golic and Ms. Vesna Mitrovic of Grupa 484 a great dept of gratitude. In a very short time they put together the programme of my visit in Belgrade and arranged all my meetings.
I would also like to thank my companion and interpreter Ms. Jasna Russo for her great committment.
1.The situation of Roma refugees in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia / numbers
According to different details given by the people I spoke to, the total number of refugees in the federal Republic of Yugoslavia lies between 650.000 and 700.000. They come from Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina (450.000), Slovenia (4-5.000) and from Kosovo (230.000, among those 40.000-60.000 Roma). 26.000 refugees were accomodated in so-called collective centres. Roma have often been rejected the admission to these collective accomodations and by the majority they set out for non-legal settlements to join long-resident Roma families. Only 20.000 Roma refugees
from Kosovo are registered. According to the details given by the Serbian Academy of Science the number of Roma refugees from Kosovo in Serbia amounts to 80.000. In 1991 the total number of Roma living in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was officially 143.519, inofficially it is estimated to be 450.000 to 800.000.
2. The social situation of Roma refugees (IDPs) in Serbia
In Yugoslavia exists a multitude of non-legal Roma settlements on state property. Usually they are tolerated but do not receive any means for basic infrastructural measures, such as electricity supply, solid streets, water connection, let alone rubbish collection. Refugees who are out of necessity forced to settle down in such places are often not willing or not being able to register. As I was told reasons for this are the fear of mistreatment by the police authorities, fear of expulsion as well as the insecurity having to deal with bureaucratic measures, such as filling in forms.
Most of the Roma refugees are not registered and therefore have no right to humanitarian help, health care, education etc. For the authorities they are non-existent. Social benfits do not exist for them. Their kind of housing depends on the social status of the family or their relatives and the means they could save when escaping. Escape and expulsion from i.e. the Kosovo proceeded in different ways depending on how much time the families had to secure or sell their belongings. Many families lost all due to the escape, first of all their houses.
The supply with food and things of daily necessity for needful (registered) refugees was until now provided by international and national help organisations. They monthly supplied the refugees with 3 kg flour, 3 l oil, 2 kg sugar, 1 kg rice, 1 kg beans, 1 kg spaghetti, 1-2 tins of fish or meat per person and hygiene products. The supply of larger families seems to be regularly reduced. In several conversations it was pointed out that the international humanitarian help organisations were withdrawing themselves more and more and slowly ending their help. Self-supply is only possible through casual work.. Many Roma collect recycable rubbish in the cities and live of selling it to agencies. They are therefore dependent on living places in larger cities or on their outskirts. Due to the wave of refugees from Kosovo the number of Roma living in settlements in and around Belgrade was highly increased to a number of est. 100.000 Roma. Apart from some aid from international organisations the refugees did not receive any building material. Therefore the number of very poor dwellings made of corrugated iron, wood and cartboard without water connection and toilet on non-solid ground has strongly increased.
A right to social security including health insurance exists only if there is a proof of regular work which for most Roma is unattainable. Without a social security contract the medical care has to be financed privately. Many Roma women, at least if they were registered, would have a right to child benefit. But often they are rejected by the authorities, not only because they are not able to fill in the numerous forms on their own.
Of more than 150 Roma settlements in and around Belgrade only one (Orlovsko Naselje in Mirjevo) is considered as entirely legal. 80 per cent of the est. 150 settlements are considered as very poor areas, 79 per cent have no connection to the drinking water supply and no canalisation. The organisation Society for the Improvement of Local Roma Settlements momentarily works on a complete record of the settlements' situation hoping that the future masterplan for the development of Belgrade will take the development of the infrastructure of these areas into consideration and give them priority. Yet there exists great scepticism whether the concerns of the Roma settlements will be taken seriously. But the very acknowledgement of the poverty-striken settlement areas in itself is seen as a progress. In the end it will be a question of political priorities. So far there are only few examples supporting the development of the infrastructure of Roma settlements. Among them is the project for a lasting development of the district Eagle's Nest in the legalized settlement Orlovsko Naselje (1997) which was initiated by the above-mentioned organisation. Yet there is a threatening development for many settlements:
Due to the privatisation of state or municipal land, meaning land sales to private buyers, it comes to new expulsions of long settled Roma families and the refugees. Usually the state or the municipality do not offer alternative solutions because of the illegality of the settlements. Entire residental quarters will be destroyed in their inner structure. See the example of the expulsion of the inhabitants of the Old Airport in Belgrade (appendix). Ms. Harvey of the UNHCHR in Belgrade comments this: "Municipality just puts people on the streets:"
At the same time the collective centres are meant to be closed down one after the other. This is accompanied by a strategy of integration and repatriation of Serbian refugees from Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina which counts on their voluntary return. There is a programme which is limited to accomodate 1000 older people and a housing-construction project for 80 families. None is simply put on the streets like it is done with the Roma.
3. The right to education - a fundamental right also for Roma children?
In numerous conversations I was told that a change of the situation of the Roma in the long term is only possible through the access to education. Yet the conditions to achieve access are discriminating for Roma children to whom a regular education is often unattainable. The school admission tests do not consider the educational level and the language barriers existing in most Roma families so that many children fail the tests and are admitted to special schools for children with learning disabilities. Some schools have furthermore begun to establish classes for Roma only which can be seen as a sign of segregation. Of prime imoprtance for a school admission is not the intelligence of the children but the linguistic competence in the Serbian language and a standard of knowledge which the children can't have to a sufficient degree due to the social conditions they live under. This comes along with the missing registration (without registration no school enrolement), the traditional attitude of the Roma towards education from which they are usually excluded and a lack of financial means for appropriated school clothes and material. Between 60 and 70 per cent of the children are said to break off elemantary school. Yet some successful school preperation courses like the privately and by donations financed kindergardens of the Association Romsko Srce in Belgrade (taking care of 200 children) showed that with a pre-school support the children passed the school admission tests by the majority and could attend "normal" schools. But appropriate supporting programmes from the state are missing. And projects like that of the provable successfully working Montessori-kindergarden for 80 children in the settlement Mali Leskovac are not given recognition by the responsible ministry because the curriculum differs from the usual. Also the organisation Roma Children Centre, a feminist women and children centre in Belgrade led by the retired teacher Milica Spasic and until now financed by international organisations, tries to help Roma children gain new prospects. They support est. 2500 children of three settlements in five elementary schools. Milica Spasic also works with the mothers, especially with women who are confronted with violence. She offers support to street children and abused, sexually exploited children. Her work is like that of i.e. the organisation Roma Women Centre BIBIJA irreplaceable but yet only a drop in the ocean. Everywhere I was told : The educational situation of the Roma can be called precarious. It is dominated by insufficient support, discrimination during the attempt to become admitted to school and daily discrimination by fellow students and teachers. For all this would exist numerous proofs.[2]
4. The situation of the returnees from Germany
My question on accomodation for returnees from Germany received the same answer everywhere: There is no help from the state, that is to say no accomodation, no possibilities of supply. Everyone has to help him-/herself or relies on the family's help. Also after being deported the refugees pass the police control without complications. But furthermore nothing that could be of any help to them happens.
In this context I met the Drmaku family with four children who was deported at the beginning of November from Dülmen, administrative district of Coesfeld where they had been living for thirteen years. The six persons now share one room with the brother's family in a Roma settlement in the city Smederevo. Altogether they are ten people whom the brother has to accomodate and supply. As they couldn' t give me an address or a housenumber ("that we don't have there") it seems to be one of the poverty-striken, illegal Roma settlements which I also saw in Belgrade. The woman said that the registration-costs of 300 Dinar per person plus passport photographs mean a lot of money to them. She asked what a registration would be good for if in the end it wouldn't be of any use. Anyway there wouldn't be any social benefits. The money they were given by the Caritas in Dülmen is longtime spent. She couldn't tell me what they should live of but casual work if her husband or her son were lucky. Building material for their own housing they would have to pay themselves.
The commisioner for refugees of the Serbian government Ms. Dr. Sanda Raskovic-Ivic confirmed that there is no help for returnees from Germany or any other countries. A resettlement to Kosovo would furthermore be individually threatening. The Roma refugees would be "endangered of their lives", "they might get killed". "They will be refugees for a second time. That is too much in ones life."
A "ticking social bomb" and "gasoline put on fire" said Ms. Sanda Raskovic-Ivic about the forced return to Serbia. "We can't do anything for this people!" There is no funds to support the returnees. Her commissioner's department is responsible for IDPs only, not for returnees from abroad. Neither is any other institution responsible for them. If the returnees come without financial means they are determined to fall into a disastrous situation. Yet if they are equiped with sufficient means it will create conflicts between them and the poor resident population. In any way right extremist tendencies also against Roma are increasing. For Ms. Sanda Raskovic-Ivic it would be a "worse scenario" if Germany now was to send back ten thousands of refugees. When questioned on the reintegration agreement of the ministry of the interior with the German government, she answered: "It's easy to sign a contract but to implement is another thing!". By this she meant that for the integration of returnees an accompanying programme would be needed. But nothing like this would be in sight. It also wouldn't be of any use to give the returnees a thousand Euro cash. No accomodation can be raised from that. The Serbian Government has already enormous problems to offer a perspective to hundret thousands of IDPs.