UN Refugee camps on contaminated soil: Desperate consequences for the health of Roma refugees in Kosovo ignored

Brussels/Göttingen
The desperate situation of the Roma refugees under the protection of the United Nations (UN) in Kosovo is the subject of a question time at the European Parliament in Brussels this Wednesday, (12.11.). On the invitation of the delegate to the European Parliament, Baroness Emma Nicholson, the head of the Kosovo team of the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) in Serbia and Kosovo, Paul Polansky, reports on the situation in two refugee camps contaminated with lead in the north of the country. There are still 638 people living there, of whom 324 are children (217 under the age of 10 years).

We hope that you will be interested in this meeting, which is being held at

9.30 a.m. at the European Parliament ASP 10 G 209

Rue Wiertz, B-1047 Brussels.

Please send applications to: emma.nicholson@europarl.europa.eu

Background

On the land of the lead processing plant of the "Trepca Mine Company", which is heavily contaminated with heavy metals, the UN set up in the region of North Mitrovica in 1999 the camps for Roma, Ashkali and "Kosovo Egyptians" of Česminluke/Česmin lug, Zhitkoc/Žitkovac and Kablare. The refugee camps were intended originally as a temporary measure, but they have continued to exist for years - in spite of many warnings concerning the high risks to health. The residents, above all children, have been suffering increasingly from the symptoms of severe lead poisoning. There are in addition disgraceful conditions of hygiene, while humanitarian and medical care, if they exist at all, are bad.

Medical investigations carried out by the World Health Organisation (WHO) have shown that the concentrations of lead in the blood and hair of the refugees in the year 2005 were so high that immediate treatment of those concerned was necessary. Yet even 77 deaths, which were almost certainly caused by the lead poisoning, and urgent appeals of the GfbV and other human rights organisations that the camps be evacuated have not moved the UN to remove the refugees from their desperate situation.

It was only under increasing public pressure that the residents of both camps Zhitkoc/Žitkovac und Kablare were transferred to a neighbouring former French barracks ("Camp Osterode"). Here however the level of contamination was hardly less. For this reason the promised decontamination of the victims offers no chance of success. The third camp remains unchanged.

The UN and the international community have knowingly accepted this human tragedy for nine years. Dozens of mothers have given birth to handicapped children or had still-births. All residents of the camps are suffering irreversible damage. Compensation payments for the victims have been refused and those responsible have not been brought to justice.

On 17th November 2008 Paul Polansky will be reporting at the House of Commons in London (Boothroyd Room, Portcullis House) at the invitation of Sandra Gidley, Member of Parliament for Romsey in Hampshire (UK). The meeting begins at 5 p.m. Those invited include: representatives of many NGOs, representatives of various religious bodies, representatives of the embassies and media in Great Britain.

Applications please to: Gidleys@parliament.uk

Tel: ++44 020 7219 5986; Fax: 020 7219 2324

On 18th November 2008 Paul Polansky is speaking at the Irish Joint Foreign Affairs Committee in Dublin (Ireland).

The Society for Threatened Peoples is an international human rights organisation with advisory status at the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations and participatory status at the Council of Europe. The GfbV works for the rights of ethnic and religious minorities under persecution, for nationalities and communities of indigenous peoples and has been represented in Kosovo since 1999. The desperate health conditions of the camp residents were documented in detail by the GfbV in October/November 2005 with the assistance of the specialist in heavy metal poisoning, the medical expert for the environment, Klaus-Dietrich Runow, who has received distinctions throughout Europe, and politicians, various institutions and persons responsible in Kosovo. The Nobel prize-winner for Literature, Günter Grass, supports the human rights work of the GfbV for Roma and Ashkali in Kosovo.

Further information can be found at:

The "Osterode" refugee camp in Kosovo

Roma and Ashkali in Kosovo : Persecuted, driven out, poisened

Unhealthy surroundings for the Roma refugees, who have been contaminated by lead

Lead Poisoning of Roma in IDP Camps in Kosovo

Kosovo : "Highest ever concentration of lead registered in human hair samples”

also from:

Jasna Causevic

GfbV Southeast Europe consultant

Tel. ++49 551 499 0616