As a writer and activist with a long association with Kosovo, and former Yugoslavia, I wish to set out here reasons for challenging the conception that this province and state might be consideration a “safe” destination for Roma, especially stateless individuals, whose asylum cases are currently under review. In particular, I will draw attention to the case of Roksana Hajziri, resident in Ottawa, Canada.
Roksana Hajziri was born in a small village in the Mitrovica area. However, her birth went unregistered (as has been common among the Romani community). She does not therefore have citizenship in the state of Kosovo, nor in neighbouring Serbia.
Numbers of Roma were conscripted into Serbian militia formations and as a consequence Roma communities became a target. It is estimated that as many as 100,000 Roma were ethnically cleansed from Kosovo, and hundreds of homes burned or seized.
The IRU has on file the names of several hundred Roma murdered during that period. Many who fled to Serbia and Macedonia remained in limbo due to lack of papers, loss of citizenship and enforced poverty.
Some were successful. Lately, individuals have been returned following, in my opinion, the unsustainable view that Kosovo is “safe” for minorities. I recall that several individuals forcefully returned, founding themselves not only menaced but without homes and employment. In that situation, they promptly fled Kosovo again.
Some of what I have written above is taken from the two reports I wrote for the London-based Minority Rights Group. As to the current atmosphere for Roma in Kosovo today, it is one of fear. Last month, elderly Rom Gani Rama was beaten up in the street in Pristina and died in hospital.
