Letter to Belgian Prime Minister

01 October 1999

On September 30, 1999, the ERRC sent a letter to Mr Guy Verhofstadt, the Belgian Prime Minister, to express its concern about recent reports according to which a large number of Romani asylum seekers from Slovakia are to be deported back to Slovakia in the days to come. Copies of the letter were also sent to Mr Johan Vande Lanotte, Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Budget, Social Integration and Social Economy, and Mr Antoine Duquesne, Minister of the Interior. The text of the ERRC letter follows:

Dear Mr. Prime Minister,

The European Roma Rights Center (ERRC), an international public interest law organisation which monitors the rights of Roma and provides legal defence in cases of abuse, is concerned about recent reports according to which a large number of Romani asylum seekers from Slovakia are to be deported back to Slovakia in the days to come. ERRC is additionally disturbed by an article in the daily Het Laatste Nieuws of September 20, quoting the Prime Minister himself saying, that, "We have been talking with Albania and Slovakia and we modestly began with repatriation. But also with Bulgaria and Macedonia and with Kosovo we want to reach a repatriation agreement in order to let the many illegals go back quickly. Refugees from countries like Slovakia and Bulgaria are not even real asylum seekers, because there are no political problems there which would justify this. Moreover, these are countries that want to join the European Union. We cannot allow that in the meantime masses of illegals from there come to Belgium."

Roma in Slovakia routinely suffer racial discrimination and racially-motivated violence, and Slovak authorities have repeatedly failed to guarantee the rights of Roma to physical security and equality, and to provide remedy in cases in which their rights have been violated. The United Nations' High Commissioner for Refugees' 1998 Guidelines relating to the Eligibility of Slovak Roma Asylum Seekers found it "clear" that "Slovak Roma may well be able to substantiate refugee claims based on severe discrimination on ethnic grounds."

The Roma in Kosovo have suffered wholesale persecution and violence in recent months, and international monitoring organisations, both governmental and intergovernmental, have repeatedly called attention to their precarious situation. Since June of this year, ethnic Albanians have expelled possibly over 100,000 Roma from Kosovo, and have killed, raped, tortured and otherwise ill-treated Roma, burned their houses and subjected those attempting to remain in the province to uninterrupted wave of ethnically-motivated violence. Documentation on the situation of Roma in Albania, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Macedonia and Slovakia is available on the European Roma Rights Center internet website at: www.errc.org.

Mr. Minister, ERRC urges you to see to it that claims for asylum by Slovak Roma are considered in accordance with Belgium's obligations under the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and to ensure that Roma are not discriminated against in access to asylum, as provided for in Article 3 of the Convention and other binding international law. ERRC further urges your government to grant all Roma from Kosovo seeking refuge in Belgium a refugee status in accordance with the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, as persons fleeing a country in which their lives and fundamental rights are in immediate danger.

Sincerely,

Dimitrina Petrova
Executive Director

Persons wishing to express similar concerns are urged to contact:
Prime Minister Mr Guy Verhofstadt at the fax number: (32 2) 512 69 53.