Slovak Romani Family Receives Asylum in Belgium
18 March 2003
The family of Anastazia Balazova, who was beaten to death by skinheads in Zilina, Slovakia, in August 2000, has been granted asylum by the General Commissioner for Refugees in Belgium, the European Roma Rights Center announced. In the early morning hours of August 20, 2000, four skinheads broke into the home of Frantisek Balaz and attacked his children with baseball bats. When his wife Anastazia tried to protect her daughter, she herself was clubbed to unconsciousness and died three days later from a cerebral hemorrhage. The perpetrators, Peter Bandur, Pavel Hrcka, Pavol Kozak and Marian Skalican, all in their twenties, were ultimately convicted of racially motivated bodily harm and given sentences ranging from three to seven years, although the first instance court had refused to recognize racial motivation in the actions of the men.
Following Mrs. Balazova's death, her husband and children were verbally abused and sometimes physically attacked by townspeople in Zilina, apparently blaming the family for the bad publicity Slovakia had received following the vicious murder. In April 2002, while on his way to Budapest to meet with his legal representatives (including members of the ERRC), Frantisek Balaz was assaulted by three skinheads at the train station in Zilina. The family subsequently fled to Belgium where, assisted by the Belgian League for Human Rights, they applied for asylum in accordance with the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees.
In a letter to the General Commissioner urging the granting of refugee status to the Balaz family, the ERRC cited several incidents of skinhead violence in Slovakia and noted that the publicity attendant to the case had made the Balaz family a target of skinheads throughout the country. In its 2000 and 2001 accession reports, the European Commission identified "violence, notably at the hands of 'skinheads'," as a continued serious threat to Roma in Slovakia.
The ERRC welcomes the decision as an important affirmation that European asylum systems are still, in some instances, capable of providing protection to refugees, despite intense pressure to contract the asylum right to the point of meaninglessness. "The General Commissioner's decision indicates that Belgium's commitments under international law to protect refugees take priority over political considerations," said attorney Alexis Deswaef, who argued the Balaz's case to the General Commissioner. The Belgian Home Office did not appeal the decision, which was issued on March 18.
