Moldova: Equality Council rules that refusal to enrol Romani refugees in school was direct discrimination
02 April 2025
Following a complaint submitted by the ERRC, the Equality Council of the Republic of Moldova decided that the refusal by a school to enrol Romani children from Ukraine was an act of direct discrimination. The Council considered, but rejected the mother’s argument that her own and the children’s Romani ethnicity was the defining element that led to less favourable treatment. Instead, based on the arguments presented, the Council considered that the discrimination they experienced was rather due to the children’s status as Ukrainian refugees.
In July 2023, the mother first met with the deputy director and was informed that she needed to present identity documents, papers confirming their status as beneficiaries of temporary protection, as well as other documents necessary for the children’s enrolment in schools. The Council heard that after a second meeting with the deputy director of the institution in August, the children were not registered and enrolled as, according to the deputy, the petitioner still could not produce all the required documents.
The Council considered the refusal to enrol the children in the educational institution and the request for additional documents as ‘less favourable treatment’; and noted that it was not the petitioner's ethnic origin that was the reason why the children were not enrolled in the educational institution complained about, but ‘other circumstances’.
As for these other circumstances, the high school administration did not follow the correct procedure applicable at that time, whereby refugee children from Ukraine, whose learning could not be assessed, could be provisionally registered to participate in educational activities without compulsory schooling. From the case materials, the Council concluded that the failure to comply with these provisions “constituted the main cause of the situation complained of, but not the ethnic origin of the petitioner. The defining aspect was the status of a displaced person.”
The Council recommended that the respondent show increased attention to the needs and particular circumstances of all children who request enrolment in the institution it manages and adopt measures adapted to their situation, providing detailed explanations and guidance on the enrolment procedure.
This incident serves as a reminder of the widespread discrimination faced by Romani refugees in countries neighbouring Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In 2024, the ERRC report Temporary Protection: The Ongoing Struggles of Romani Refugees from Ukraine documented the structural discrimination that Romani refugees faced more than two years after they fled the war. The report found that Romani refugees faced inadequate access to the basic services, frequently find themselves in sub-standard living conditions in inadequate and often ethnically segregated accommodation, and faced open discrimination in the private rental sector.
