Earlier this week (8 March), Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico announced his intention to create a programme that would "gradually put as many Roma children as possible into boarding schools and gradually separate them from the life they live in the settlements." By doing so, this would prevent the next generation of Roma from being unable to "integrate", Mr Fico said, adding that he expected criticism from human rights organisations. Amnesty International has described the idea as a discriminatory attack on the Roma way of living. "Uprooting them from their surroundings and removing them from their families is an attack on their identity," the organisation said in a statement. The European Commission has for its part warned against possible racial segregation. "It would be probably better if the offer was made on an socio-economic basis rather than on racial grounds," the office of education commissioner Androulla Vassiliou told EUobserver.
Earlier this week (8 March), Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico announced his intention to create a programme that would "gradually put as many Roma children as possible into boarding schools and gradually separate them from the life they live in the settlements."
By doing so, this would prevent the next generation of Roma from being unable to "integrate", Mr Fico said, adding that he expected criticism from human rights organisations.
Amnesty International has described the idea as a discriminatory attack on the Roma way of living. "Uprooting them from their surroundings and removing them from their families is an attack on their identity," the organisation said in a statement.
The European Commission has for its part warned against possible racial segregation.
"It would be probably better if the offer was made on an socio-economic basis rather than on racial grounds," the office of education commissioner Androulla Vassiliou told EUobserver.
That's a rather lame and low-key 'caution' for the same policy that became infamous in Australia. Then again, with the recent anti-Gypsy measures in EU-15 members Italy and Greece, maybe I shouldn't expect more... *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Belgium and Sweden are swiftly returning ethnic Albanian and Roma asylum seekers to their countries of origin, hoping to avert an influx triggered by the recent removal of the visa requirement for Serbian and Macedonian nationals.Busses carrying 400 asylum seekers left Belgium, heading toward Serbia and Macedonia, local press has reported. The Serbian police confirmed yesterday (11 March) that the first bus had crossed into Serbian territory. Since the European Union lifted visa restrictions for Serbia and neighbouring Macedonia in December (see Background), Belgium has seen a sharp rise in asylum requests from ethnic Albanians from the Presevo valley and the region around Kumanovo across the border with Macedonia. Similarly, Sweden registered an increased number of asylum-seekers of Serbian nationality, mostly of Roma ethnicity.
Busses carrying 400 asylum seekers left Belgium, heading toward Serbia and Macedonia, local press has reported. The Serbian police confirmed yesterday (11 March) that the first bus had crossed into Serbian territory.
Since the European Union lifted visa restrictions for Serbia and neighbouring Macedonia in December (see Background), Belgium has seen a sharp rise in asylum requests from ethnic Albanians from the Presevo valley and the region around Kumanovo across the border with Macedonia.
Similarly, Sweden registered an increased number of asylum-seekers of Serbian nationality, mostly of Roma ethnicity.
