Italy: Kosovo Romas denied refugee status
01 September 1999
The Italian government is to treat Roma as illegal immigrants rather than refugees, denying them access to temporary residence permits. Interior Ministry sources explained that the arrival of thousands of fleeing Kosovo Romas in Italy will be viewed as a problem of human trafficking while Ministry spokesperson Daniela Pugliesi was quoted saying that the Ministry did not accept that the lives of Roma in Kosovo are at risk, in spite of evidence to the contrary.
On 20 July, the Interior Ministry said that it would stop granting "temporary humanitarian permits", valid until December 1999, which had been available to refugees from Kosovo since 26 March. An announcement by Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema on 19 June, explained that the special humanitarian protection measures in force during the war were no longer applicable. "There is an international contingent that has the task of protecting all the minorities that live in Kosovo", he said, adding that "If I recognise someone's status as a refugee I am legitimising the possibility that a minority can be driven out of a country where there is an international contingent present. And that would be a mistake."
Roma continue to drown trying to cross the Adriatic Sea to Italy, and over 40 bodies were found after a vessel carrying an estimated 100 refugees sank in August. Interior Ministry sources estimate that 7,421 Roma had arrived in Puglia from Montenegro from 19 June to 19 August. Salvatore Di Staso, president of the regional council, suggested that Puglia was "under siege", describing the fleeing Roma as an "indiscriminate and extremely dangerous movement that brings tension to our region. Which, for its peculiarities, history and tribal characteristics, represents a further danger for Puglia." Interior Minister Rosa Russo Jervolino promised that measures were being taken to deliver the strong action Di Staso asked for to protect Italy's Adriatic coast. Italy and Montenegro are negotiating an agreement to return large numbers of the Roma who recently disembarked in Italy to Montenegro. The agreement involves the deployment of Italian police and the presence of Italian immigration officials in Montenegro.
In Kosovo returning Albanians have been attacking the Roma minority for siding with the Serbs, despite statements they issued to express their neutrality, accusing them of looting abandoned villages. A field report by the European Roma Research Centre (ERRC) in Kosovo from 30 June to 7 July, interviewing Kosovan Romas, reports a "pogrom situation". It documents cases of abductions, torture and physical abuse, rape and expulsions; Roma houses have been subject to confiscation, looting and forced entry. The KLA were allegedly able to set up detention centres in public buildings in some of the larger towns. The testimonies collected confirm previous reports, such as the German soldiers' discovery of a KLA torture chamber in the former police headquarters in Prizren.
ERRC researchers witnessed instances where United Nations security forces (KFOR) troops failed to react to looting. They presented a list of Roma-inhabited neighbourhoods needing special protection to the KFOR military police in Prizren. Lieutenant Grotzow explained that despite being aware of the problem, he did not have the manpower to ensure effective policing. KFOR officers unofficially told ERRC that over 250 Roma had been killed in the German sector since KFOR entered the area. Camps such as Stenkovac in Macedonia and Rozaje in Montenegro, which were recently sheltering Albanians fleeing from Serbian police and security forces, have been filling with Roma. UNHCR figures indicate that there were 23,475 Kosovan refugees in Montenegro in August. Roma refugees in Prizren told ERRC that there are no Roma communities left in the towns of Pec, Gnjilane and Urosevac.
The ERRC has sent prime minister D'Alema an open letter stressing that, in the present circumstances, the expulsion of Roma would be both "moral