{"id":1115,"date":"2014-12-05T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-12-05T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/%20rroma.org\/05-12-2014-administrative-court-of-munster-serbia-not-a-safe-country-of-origin-for-rroma\/"},"modified":"2022-07-26T13:57:01","modified_gmt":"2022-07-26T12:57:01","slug":"05-12-2014-administrative-court-of-munster-serbia-not-a-safe-country-of-origin-for-rroma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/de\/05-12-2014-administrative-court-of-munster-serbia-not-a-safe-country-of-origin-for-rroma\/","title":{"rendered":"05.12.2014 Administrative court of M\u00fcnster: Serbia not a safe country of origin for Rroma"},"content":{"rendered":"

Die Zeit (2014) reports \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ton a recent judgment of the M\u00fcnster administrative court. When assessing the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tapplication for asylum by a Serbian Rroma family, the court reached the verdict \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthat Serbia does not constitute a safe country of origin for the Rroma minority. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe judges justified their judgment, among others, by pointing out that \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tunsuccessful asylum applicants can expect to be criminally prosecuted upon \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\treturn. Thereby, the court also questions the new law, which declares Macedonia \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tand Bosnia-Herzegovina but also Serbia to safe countries of origin. Several \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tadministrative courts had agreed to the asylum applications of Romany families \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tin the recent past: \u201cThe administrative court \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(AC) of M\u00fcnster questions the constitutionality of the new asylum reform of the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tfederal government.<\/em> The judges granted \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tan urgent application for asylum by a Serbian Roma family, and stopped their \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\timminent deportation, said the AC.<\/em> The \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcourt has thus set itself in conflict with the federal government, which declared \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe Balkan countries Serbia, Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina to safe \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcountries of origin in November<\/em>. The AC \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\twants to clarify now in main proceedings, whether the law should be submitted \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tto the federal constitutional court for review. When declaring a state to a \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsafe country of origin, the legislators must make an overall assessment of the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsignificance of political persecution conditions in the relevant country.<\/em> Decisive are the criteria prescribed by the constitution. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe legislator maybe did not sufficiently comply with this regarding the Serbian \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRoma and the negative Serbian emigration requirements. Moreover, the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tlegislative history did not show that the decisions of administrative tribunals \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\twere taken into account.<\/em> For instance, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe administrative courts of Stuttgart and M\u00fcnster upheld the urgent complaints \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof Serbian asylum seekers in a variety of cases.\u201d <\/em>Rroma are not politically \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpersecuted in Serbia. However, that does not mean that they are not exposed to \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\trepeated discrimination in everyday life. Particularly the Rroma already economically \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmarginalised. The assessment of the individual case should always be favoured against \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ta reductionist assessment of the social situation in a country. Rroma have been \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tprovably integrated in Southeast Europe for centuries \u2013 as, Ottoman tax \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tregisters, among others, show \u00ad and form part of all strata of society and \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tprofessions. However, since the Yugoslav wars and the strengthened nationalism, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRroma increasingly face discrimination. Furthermore, there is the mentioned law \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof the Serbian criminal code that threatens asylum applicants with criminal \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tprosecution upon return (compare Prantl 2014).<\/p>\n