Abazov and others v North Macedonia (pending – considered alongside two other cases)

08 October 2018

Facts

Almost ten years ago, Macedonian citizens began to enjoy “visa liberalisation”. This means that Macedonians can travel to the European Union without getting a visa in advance. Soon after, a widespread practice of racial profiling started at Macedonia’s borders: Macedonian border guards have stopped large numbers of Roma who are Macedonian citizens from leaving the country.

The applicants in this case are among those who were racially profiled at the border and stopped from leaving their own country. In 2014 they tried to cross the border to attend a wedding celebration in Kosovo. Macedonian border guards would not let them leave the country. The border guards told them that, given their ethnicity, they were likely going to claim asylum in the EU and “could not be trusted”.  

The Case

With the ERRC’s support, the applicants took a case in the civil courts in Macedonia against the Ministry of Interior. They claimed that they had been victims of discrimination and of a violation of their constitutional right to leave the country. The courts in Macedonia found that there was a violation of the right to leave the country, but did not find that there was discrimination. So we helped the applicants take their discrimination case to the European Court. 

Macedonia is one of the few countries to have ratified Protocol no.12 to the European Convention on Human Rights, which contains a prohibition on all forms of discrimination by public authorities. So the complaint was made under that protocol, and also under Article 4 of Protocol  no.4 – which protects the right of everyone to leave her/his own country – taken with Article 14, which also deals with discrimination. 

The Court’s statement of the facts can be found here.

The relevant parts of the application form we submitted to the Court on behalf of the applicants can be found here.