Published: 10 July 2010
Region: West Balkans & Worldwide
One story not making headlines in Britain and most of the rest of Europe is how the Roma community has become a target for border guards after the easing of visa restrictions to help people travelling between the countries of former Yugoslavia and the European Union.
Roma people appear to be the only losers in a visa liberalisation process according to some local media. According to advocacy groups media are reporting in local languages that this ethnic minority are being targeted as bogus asylum seekers.
Roma from the Western Balkans, either travelling alone or in family groups, are being picked up in transit at the frontiers of the EU by border agents targeting dark- skinned travellers. They are then subject to special checks and if they don’t have sufficient money with them — no matter that they may have relatives across the border willing to provide support — they are refused entry and sent back home.
The Roma rights NGO Chachipe, based in Luxembourg, has carried out a special investigation into new measures which have been put in place by Serbia, Macedonia and other countries of the region after the easing of the visa regime.
These countries are anxious not to see the reintroduction of tough controls over access to the European Union so they have put in place strong border controls, including strict monitoring of access to travel documents for some travellers.
The NGO says that these measures are most advanced in Macedonia which has recently adopted a law enabling the temporary seizure of the passports of failed asylum seekers.
Similar measures are also planned in Serbia. Many thousands of citizens of these countries, primarily Roma, are being arbitrarily deprived of their right to travel on the basis of the suspicion that they could be “false asylum seekers” says Chachipe.
In its report, the NGO highlights how pressure from Brussels is driving the tough approach, and notes how changes of law to strengthen exit controls are remarkable similar in all the affected countries. They raise concerns that the role of the EU is far beyond that of merely an adviser to the countries concerned.
Click here to download The Visa Liberalisation and Restrictions on the Right to Travel in the Balkans report from Chachipe.
Courtesy of Chachipe.
