More and more Hungarian Rroma are now being granted asylum in Canada. Now almost 69% obtain it whereas a few years back, it was almost impossible.
Two Rroma families were denied boarding a flight to Canada. Canada is continuing its restrictive policy of screenings prior to boarding planes with that destination.
SHAME!
In view of the mounting evidence of discrimination against Rroma in Hungary, Canada is accepting more asylum applications from Hungarian Rroma.
AT LAST!
Canadian immigration officials are screening passengers departing to Canada at the Budapest airport, and deny entry to anyone presumed to be Rrom.
This is definitively not acceptable!
Following the condemnation of a Canadian lawyer for having mishandled the cases of Rroma refugees, a couple of Hungarian Rroma are getting a second chance and the court is now re-considering the refugee status.
Budapest’s 8th district seldom features in guidebooks. While the buildings were once grand and beautiful, they are now dilapidated and gritty. The neighbourhood is mostly Rroma, with a high level of unemployment, and is reputed for crime and prostitution.
Rroma are now offering guided tours through the neighbourhood to show the other facets of this part of town, including sights such as the Jewish cemetery, but also much more simply, the fairly normal if often poor normality of this part of town.
Austrian Airlines, Austrian airport officials, and the CIC (Citizenship, Immigration, and Canada) banned a Rroma researcher from Hungary to board a plane to Toronto where she was scheduled to do research on fellow Hungarian Rroma who migrated to Canada recently, this in spite of having a valid EU passport, 1’000 dollars, and a return ticket.
This seems to be a consequence of several airlines being fined by Canada following them transporting Rroma who later asked for asylum or for immigration to that country. In any case, there is a presumption of innocence, and the researcher’s rights were clearly flouted in a bout of racial profiling.
A Canadian lawyer was suspended for 5 months for misconduct involving Rroma refugees for failing to adequately represent thousands of Rroma claimants between 2009 and 2013. In view of what this meant for these refugees, i.e. being deported back, this is a mild sentence indeed.
A portrait and interview of a Hungarian Rromni activist who worked first at the European Roma Right Centre (ERRC) and who is now the special raporteur for Minority issues at the UN.
Well done!
Following a scathing report on lawyers who did not defend Rroma refugees from Hungary properly, the Ontario state has passed a slate of new measures requiring competency tests for lawyers. There were a number of cases that were lost due to the incompetency of lawyers, resulting in several expulsions back to Hungary.
An official Cancadian delegation is currently visiting Hungary to understand the reasons and true situation of the 40 to 50 families from the region who fled Miskolc and asked for asylum in Canada. This exodus is due to the expulsion currently under way in a Rroma neighbourhood, to make way for a parking lot for a football stadium. Rroma were pushed outside of the city. This action initiated by the mayor has already generated quite a bit of noise. Let’s see what the Canadian officials come back with, and let’s hope that they will see these were illegal expulsions.
Meanwhile, Canada expulsed a Hungarian criminal kingpin who trafficked people into Canada, coaching them to tell they were persecuted Rroma. Neither he nor most of his victims were Rroma …
US President Obama honoured the international Roma day today and re-iterated his commitment to integration and equal treatment.
Thanks!
CBC News report that Rroma refugees in Canada, mostly from Hungary, have been facing massive bias and discrimination in their cases. The report making this claim, authored by Sean Rehaag, a law professor, is damning for the immigration authorities in Canada. He speaks of “luck”, of little hope at appeals, and at denials at the actual situation of Rroma, especially in Hungary.
A Hungarian Rroma family from Gyongyöspata in North Eastern Hungary has finally won their asylum case and are grated a stay in Canada. The asylum application and the back and forth and set backs have made the news since a long time. We welcome this decision!
Meanwhile a Canadian Lawyer who lost another prominent asylum case for Hungarian Rroma in Toronto admitted that he was negligent in preparing their defence. What can one say to this?
The Hungarian Rroma family who was fighting the deportation order in Canada have lost their last appeal in Canada’s Federal Court. They now have to leave the country and go back to Hungary where they say they are at risk due to right wing extremists.
The Hungarian Rroma family who was fighting the deportation order in Canada have lost their last appeal in Canada’s Federal Court. They now have to leave the country and go back to Hungary where they say they are at risk due to right wing extremists.
Cain (2014) reports on a new and controversial practice in the Canadian immigration policy. Financial subsidies are paid to immigrants when they voluntarily agree to renounce an asylum procedure and return to their homeland. From the perspective of immigration lawyers, this practice is not without problems, as asylum applicants are encouraged to give up their rights in return for financial incentives: “Under the Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration Program, unsuccessful refugee claimants who agree to abandon the appeal process are given airfare home, which on average costs $1,500, and “in-kind reintegration assistance” to a maximum of $2,000. […] Immigration lawyers question how voluntary the program – targeted at people who are often extremely poor, worried about incarceration or deportation and may be unfamiliar with Canada’s refugee appeal system – really is. “The more appeal rights you give up, the more money you get,” says immigration lawyer Max Berger. […] “Essentially, it’s a bribe. The Government of Canada is offering refugee claimants money, which is tied to them forgoing their appeal rights.” In addition, Cain’s article discusses the fate of a Rroma family from Slovakia. The father portrayed points out on his ill-treatment and discrimination in his home country. He wanted to spare his two young sons such experiences through emigration to Canada. For five years, the young family man has been living there with his children and his wife. However, the personal experiences of discrimination have little impact compared to the official estimates of the authorities. Rroma are not politically persecuted in Europe. However, that does not mean that they do not experience discrimination in everyday life, in the education system and the labour market.
Metro News Canada (2014) reports on the newest developments in the case of the Hungarian Rroma family Pusuma. The father of the family, Jozsef Pusuma, worked for an NGO as an investigator of hate crimes in Hungary. In July 2009, according to the family’s statements, a fatal incident occurred: during a walk they were brutally attacked by right-wing extremists, the daughter remained unharmed only because of the sacrifice of her father, who protected beneath himself. The attackers said that this would not be the last attack, if Jozsef did not stop his activities. Subsequently, the family immigrated to Canada. The Pusumas have now been living in the sanctuary of a church in Toronto for two years. Fearing to be deported, they have never left their refuge. Their asylum application was rejected. Against the lawyer himself, who should have represented their case, a lawsuit because of misconduct was submitted: “The family, originally from Hungary, is one of 18 complainants against Toronto lawyer Viktor Hohots, the subject of an ongoing disciplinary proceeding by the Law Society of Upper Canada for failure to “adequately prepare” a defence of his clients’ asylum claims. […]“Jozsef and Timea have finally been summoned to appear as witnesses in the lawyer’s misconduct case. They have been waiting for this moment for almost three years now, because it’s their chance for vindication,” said the family’s new lawyer, Andrew Brouwer, of the Refugee Law Office clinic. “But now they are facing a Catch-22. They are required by law to attend the hearing. If they don’t, they could be arrested for contempt of court. But if they do go, they face arrest for deportation the moment they set foot outside of the church.” The new lawyer of the family and numerous supporters demand a temporary residence permit for the family, so they can attend the lawsuit without fear of deportation. – Canada is being criticised for uncompromisingly applying the status of safe countries of origin, which Hungary has been assigned by the Canadian law, and to address to little the individual stories of asylum seekers (compare Brosnahan 2014).
Katawazi (2014) covers the asylum case of a five-member Rroma family in Canada. The family fled from discrimination in Hungary to Canada and applied for political asylum. However, Canada has declared Hungary a safe country of origin, whereby asylum applications from that country are seldom accepted. The Buzas’ family applied for admission based on humanitarian grounds in December 2013. The request remains unanswered until today. Nevertheless, Canadian authorities have set the family’s expulsion for July 3rd this year. Through the support of the public, the parents hope to avert the deportation: “In a statement to the public, Renata Buzas said she hopes to stay in Canada in order to protect her children. “Each day, my children suffered from mental and physical abuse at school because of their Roma origins. No mother can tolerate that. Here in Canada they don’t have to be afraid; they can be themselves, they can evolve and flourish,” said Buzas” (Katawazi 2014). Regarding the assessment of asylum cases, the problem remains that the personal experiences of migrants are not relevant compared to the official country analyses. Since individual fates are often difficult to prove, the regulatory assessment of the security situation in the countries concerned outweighs. Regarding the case of discrimination against minorities, the security situation is difficult to assess, because the individual experiences do not necessarily correspond to official assessments.
Humphreys (2014) reports on a trial in Canada on the occasion of an asylum application of a Hungarian Romany family. At the centre of interest lies the case of the Rrom Mario Gyula Varga. While the mother and the half-brother of the man were able to present to the court convincingly that they were victims of domestic violence by the father of Varga, a violent pimp, and were persecuted by neo-Nazi groups, the application of Mario Varga himself was rejected as implausible. From the perspective of the judge, the applicant could not demonstrate convincingly that he was indeed a victim of violence in Hungary. Instead, he had argued with the general persecution of the Rroma in Hungary. This general discrimination against Rroma the judge ruled improbable: ““It seems to me that [Mr. Varga’s lawyer’s] submission is that the only reasonable assessment of country conditions in Hungary is that each and every one of its 200,000 to 500,000 citizens of Roma background has a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, and that on the balance of probabilities, each and every one’s life is at personal risk, or that each and every one is at risk of cruel and unusual treatment or punishment. If it be so, then Hungary is a failed state. Yet it is not”, Justice Harrington wrote in his ruling last week.” The case shows that evidence for individual asylum applications is extremely difficult to prove. Official governmental countries analyses are juxtaposed with subjective experiences, which usually are express only orally, but cannot be verified. Then, the credibility of the argument is an important criterion. The verdict is therefore also associated with the assessment of the conditions in a country and related value judgments. The estimation of compliance with the rights of minorities in Hungary is far from evident, as can be read in the critical, Hungarian press. Violations of minority rights and rights against discrimination repeatedly occur. Therefore, the verdict of judge Harrington that Hungary is a failed state, if the arguments of the applicant are true, is not that far-fetched.
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