{"id":1824,"date":"2014-05-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-05-29T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/%20rroma.org\/30-05-2014-german-court-decision-serbia-not-a-safe-country-of-origin-for-roma\/"},"modified":"2022-08-04T11:42:45","modified_gmt":"2022-08-04T10:42:45","slug":"30-05-2014-german-court-decision-serbia-not-a-safe-country-of-origin-for-roma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/de\/30-05-2014-german-court-decision-serbia-not-a-safe-country-of-origin-for-roma\/","title":{"rendered":"30.05.2014 German court decision: Serbia not a safe country of origin for Roma"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The administrative court \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof Stuttgart, in what is perhaps a landmark ruling, recognized the refugee status \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof two Rroma from Serbia. Thus, it challenged the views of the Federal Office \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tfor Migration and Refugees, which at the end of last year came to the conclusion \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthat no persecution of Rroma could be established in Serbia and deportation was \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttherefore justified: \u201cAs reasoning, the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tjudges said that the Roma were experiencing extreme disadvantages in their home \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcountry and were forced to live on the margins of society, as a spokeswoman for \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe court said on Monday. The main reason for the judgment was the restriction \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof the free movement of Roma in the southeast European country. For Roma, under \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcertain circumstances, it is punishable under Serbian law to apply for asylum \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tin another country. This equals a persecution, the court judged.\u201d<\/em> The \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tverdict has the character of a precedent insofar, because the Rroma are not persecuted \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tin Serbia, according to a federal decree that will be adopted shortly. Thus, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe discussion about the discrimination against Rroma in former Yugoslavia and \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttheir status as refugees is once more opened. The decision also highlights that \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe assessment of discrimination against a minority is far from evident and \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\teasy. While some assessment are based on the legal foundations of a country, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tother evaluations are based on everyday practices, such as discrimination in \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe labour market and the education system, that are far more difficult to \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tprove than law-related disadvantages (see Focus online 2014\/I, SWR 2014).<\/p>\n

The federal government wants \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tto take a completely different direction. According to the daily newspaper Neues Deutschland<\/em> (2014) the government \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\twants declare Serbia, Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina as safe countries of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\torigin. German interior minister Thomas de Maizi\u00e8re stated that Cabinet would discuss \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe bill on April the 30th. De Maizi\u00e8re had previously proposed, to also take Albania \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tand Montenegro onto the list of safe countries of origin, but this proposal \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tfailed because of the criticism of the SPD: \u201cSPD \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tand the Union had approved in the coalition agreement, to take the three states \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof Serbia, Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina onto the list. Asylum applications \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tfrom people from these Balkan countries can then be processed faster \u2013 and are usually \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\trejected. […] De Maizi\u00e8re said that Serbia had candidate status as a member \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tstate of the European Union. Albania and Bosnia-Herzegovina went for it. \u201cFrom \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthese states one must expect that they deal well with their own citizens\u201d, de \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMaizi\u00e8re said.\u201d <\/em>This contrasts with a perspective that emphasizes the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tindividual destinies of those affected. For the German Institute for Human Rights, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe concept of safe countries of origin is problematic in itself, because it \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tgreatly complicates the presentation and verification of individual persecutions \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(compare Focus online 2014\/II).<\/p>\n