Deportation of Roma from Belgium Second Letter to Belgian Prime Minister

07 October 1999

On October 7, 1999, the ERRC sent a letter to Mr Guy Verhofstadt, the Belgian Prime Minister, to condemn the Belgian government's legally dubious deportation to Slovakia on October 5, 1999, of 74 Romani asylum seekers -- a number of whom still had pending asylum claims -- as well as the underhanded and deceitful manner in which the deportation was apparently carried out. 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, writes to condemn the Belgian government's legally dubious deportation to Slovakia on October 5, 1999, of 74 Romani asylum seekers a number of whom still had pending asylum claims -- as well as the underhanded and deceitful manner in which the deportation was apparently carried out. We call on your government to:

a) reverse this decision by offering to pay for all 74 Romani deportees to return to Belgium and to ensure that their applications for asylum be given due consideration in accordance with the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees; and
b) ensure that several hundred other Romani asylum seekers from Slovakia presently remaining in Belgium are not expelled so long as their asylum applications have not been given adequate consideration by all appropriate judicial authorities, including but not limited to the State Council (Conseil d'Etat).

The deportation of asylum applicants prior to exhaustion of their last available judicial appeal is contrary to the spirit of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, and, in the context of Roma from Slovakia, constitutes a breach of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, insofar as improper deportation runs a grave risk of subjecting Roma from Slovakia to inhuman and degrading treatment. In addition, the fact that 74 persons of Romani ethnicity were singled out for this invidious special treatment raises concerns about Belgium's compliance with Article 3 of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, which requires non-discrimination in access to asylum. Finally, the legally questionable nature of the Belgian government's action is underlined both by its precipitous character and by the authorities' apparent determination to prevent the European Court of Human Rights from considering the Romani applicants' claims before they had been ferreted out of the country.

The 74 deported Roma were reportedly called in by local police authorities in the towns of Gant and Tirlemont, on the orders of the Interior Ministry, on September 30 and October 1, under the false pretext that they must complete additional forms as part of their asylum application procedure. Once the Roma entered the police facilities, however, they were immediately rounded up and transferred to a closed detention centre called - 127 "bis" - at the outskirts of Brussels, where they remained under heavy police surveillance until their deportation on October 5.

The Belgian government's decision to proceed with deportation on October 5 is all the more disturbing in light of reports that, earlier the same day, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, in response to a complaint filed on behalf of the Roma applicants by the Belgian League for Human Rights, had expressly requested that the Belgian government stay deportation for eight days to permit consideration of whether such deportation would violate the European Convention of Human Rights. In a communication reportedly faxed to the Ministry of Justice at 4:00 p.m. on October 5, the European Court requested the Belgian government to provide information by no later than October 8 concerning: (i) whether it had given due consideration to the applicants' claims that they would be subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment in Slovakia, and; (ii) the basis on which it had proceeded to expel asylum applicants whose cases had not yet reached a final decision by the State Council (Conseil d'Etat). Almost two hours after the receipt of the European Court's request for a stay, the Roma were deported from Brussels national airport.

The Belgian government's apparent disregard for the European Court of Human Rights was only affirmed by the statements of officials subsequently asked to explain why the government had gone to such effort to avoid independent consideration of the deportations' legality. Thus, on October 6, a spokesperson of the Interior Ministry told Radio Free Europe that the Strasbourg ruling is non-binding. Moreover, this Interior Ministry official is reported to have said, the government had acted lawfully since, in the government's view, the European Court would certainly have agreed had it considered the matter.

As a strictly legal matter, it may be true that the European Court's request for a stay of deportation was not binding. Nonetheless, it would seem inconsistent with the spirit of the European Convention for a state first to go to great effort to prevent the Court from considering a claim, then to brush off questions concerning the legality of a challenged action with the confident assertion that, had it considered the claim, the Court surely would have agreed with the government. At a minimum, Belgium's haste to proceed and its apparent determination to avoid a European Court ruling on the merits only raise further questions as to the legality of the deportations.

Finally, Mr. Minister, these deportations are especially troubling, given that, as we noted in a letter to you dated September 30, 1999, 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. As in our September 30 letter, we again respectfully refer you to the United Nations' High Commissioner for Refugees' 1998 Guidelines relating to the Eligibility of Slovak Roma Asylum Seekers. These Guidelines found it "clear" that "Slovak Roma may well be able to substantiate refugee claims based on severe discrimination on ethnic grounds."

Mr. Minister, ERRC is deeply troubled by your government's apparent failure to adhere to its obligations under international law. We urge you to take all actions which may be necessary and proper, including those detailed above, to remedy the harm already caused to the 74 Roma deported on October 5, and to ensure that Romani asylum applicants do not suffer discriminatory treatment in Belgium in the future.

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.