“Caught in a vicious circle”

Wednesday, January 27, 2016, 3 pm to 4:30 pm

at the premises of the European Parliament in Brussels, room PHS 5A33

With support from the European parliamentarians Soraya Post (Sweden) and Cornelia Ernst (Germany), the Society for Threatened Peoples will be presenting a report on the fatal consequences for Roma, Askali and Balkan-Egyptian who are forcefully repatriated to Kosovo. The presentation will take place at the premises of the European Parliament in Brussels next Wednesday. The two politicians want to urge the EU to help Roma minorities in Kosovo, who are suffering from severe discrimination, to live a life in dignity.

Media representatives and representatives of all political groups represented in the European Parliament are invited to the presentation of the study, which was conducted by the Swiss section of the Society for Threatened Peoples, and which describes the ordeal of members of the Roma minorities who were deported from Germany.

The Society for Threatened Peoples is represented by Jan Diedrichsen, board member of the STP in Germany; Stephan Müller, member of the STP in Switzerland; and Dejan Markovic, representative of the STP in Serbia. Bashkim Ibishi, managing director of the KAAD (Kosovo Agency for Advocacy and Development), will join the delegation.

For the study, the STP accompanied 70 families – Roma, Ashkali and Balkan-Egyptians who were deported from Germany or forced to return to Kosovo – and documented what happened to them. The results are shocking: In Kosovo, minority groups suffer from serious structural and cumulative discrimination, so badly that they cannot live there. Most of them have to flee to Western Europe, where they are usually picked up quite soon and then deported again. In Kosovo, the vicious circle continues, as there are only slim chances to find work or a place to live, and the children are discriminated against in schools. Without support from relatives who still live in Western Europe, many would not even have enough to eat.

The Society for Threatened Peoples calls on the EU member states to finally acknowledge that the government of Kosovo has failed, and to refrain from deporting Roma, Ashkali and Balkan-Egyptians until there are effective measures to curb the life-threatening discrimination. The human rights organization demands protection for refugees from Kosovo who belong to the minority groups. Also, those who have already been living in Western Europe for a while must be integrated, at least as long as the discrimination continues. They need to be able to work here and be given access to job training. Also, integration programs have to be established in Kosovo and the other countries of the Western Balkans.

The STP’s report “Lost in Transition” are available on our website: www.gfbv.de

Header photo: European Parliament via Flickr