My passport and who I am
03 November 2014
It has been a while since I have written down my thoughts, maybe because I prefer to express myself through actions, events or initiatives.
I am a Roma from Macedonia. I am more proud of my ethnic origin than of the country I come from; although I perceive the country as mine, among other things, because of my nationality - which is a kind of marriage between me and Macedonia.
So I have a Macedonian passport, something like a marriage certificate which proves my ‘status’ from which allegedly I should benefit. Benefit in terms of having rights and freedoms on one hand and obligations on the other.
The mention of rights and freedoms sounds very powerful, but I wish it could be as powerful in reality. Especially when it comes to my freedom of movement.
One thing is clear as day, I have my ‘status’ and I have my rights, but only on paper, a piece of paper called a passport.
A passport which instead of helping me to realize my right to leave my country and my freedom of movement, actually obstructs my ability to move, contradicting the very nature and purpose of a passport.
The problem is that a Macedonian passport in one person’s hands is not the same as it is in the hands of another, for so much depends on your ethnicity. The reality is that Roma Macedonians, myself included, feel that we are less likely to be allowed to leave the country than our non-Roma countrymen and countrywomen. The border guards (and the politicians and policymakers who instruct them) are afraid that we will claim asylum abroad, or stay illegally in Western Europe, making Macedonia look bad.
The state and its institutions are a mother to some but step-mother to others. Of course, the step-sons and daughters are my brothers and sisters - my people, the Roma.
Macedonian border officials together with the decision-makers are not just breaching Article 27 of the Constitution, but are also in breach of several international treaties (Article 2, paragraph 2 of Protocol 4 to the ECHR, which guarantees the right of everyone to leave any country, including his own; Article 12, paragraph 2 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; Article 13, paragraph 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human rights).
And Macedonia wants to be part of the EU? With these practices? With this behaviour? They would have an easier time convincing Greece that Alexander the Great was from (the former Yugoslav Republic of) Macedonia!
On the subject of Greece, the Macedonia media has been highlighting violations of the right of (non-Roma) Macedonians to cross the border into Greece by Greek border officials. It is a mirror image of what the Macedonian border officials do to Roma. However, while our government ministers send letters of concern to their counterparts in Greece, no one is talking about what those same ministers permit to happen to their own Roma citizens.
In this case, the case of Macedonian Roma, the adage ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you’ this case, clearly does not apply.
I ask myself why should I pay for my passport? For which propose? To have a self-portrait (I have enough selfies on Facebook, I don’t need it!). To be refused the right to leave the country, the only reason why anyone gets a passport in the first place.
We want to be Macedonian citizens. If Macedonian Roma go abroad to look for another place to live, one reason is that those who are supposed to treat us as equal citizens have made us feel like foreigners in our own land…
