Roma refugees from Kosovo

Bari: centro a prima acollienzo Bari Palese

One group of asylum-seekers in the reception centers visited by the BHHRG in southern Italy seemed to take the issue of refugee status very seriously and all had stories of persecution: the Roma or gypsies from Kosovo. Unlike other asylum-seekers who tend to enter Italy from Albania, in August hundreds of Roma refugees fled Kosovo through Montenegrin ports to Bari. The largest group arrived on 19th August. Roma refugees from Kosovo in southern Serbia had told representatives of the BHHRG in July that they wanted to go to Italy.

By 1st September, the influx stalled perhaps the drowning of up to 100 gypsies during the crossing from Montenegro in small fishing boats had acted as a disincentive to leave, for the moment at least. The cost to each person for the journey - 1000 to 2500 marks - amust also deter such large families.

The Roma refugees are kept separately from the ethnic Albanian refugees, even though many of the Kosovo gypsies use Albanian as their first language and few of those at Bari spoke Serbian. They are housed in a centre situated within an Italian air force base close to Bari's civilian airport. Refugees are housed in caravans and have proper facilities for eating and washing, although the centre lack the shops, doctors etc. laid on by the Catholic charities at San Foca. Out of 385 refugees, 310 are Albanian-speaking gypsies from Kosovo.

When BHHRG visited volunteers were helping to entertain the many young children in the centre. Italian police and officials from the local prefecture manage the centre efficiently and humanely although, again, there is a fence around the perimeter and people are not allowed to leave. Visitors have to speak to their relatives or friends through the fence loosely supervised by the police guards.

Roma refugees unusual: whole families in flight not just young men

This group of refugees was strikingly different from all the others seen by BHHRG in Italy. It consisted overwhelmingly of families with children, babies as well as the elderly. This is the normal pattern one would expect to see with refugees everywhere and which was the case when refugees fled Kosovo itself in April 1999 and as Serb families have done since, but in Western Europe refugees are almost exclusively single young people, mainly men aged 16-25.

According to the police officer in charge of the camp all the gypsies say they were chased from Kosovo by the KLA (UCK). As these people speak Albanian their expulsion can only be explained in terms of their 'race' - a classic example of ethnic cleansing.

Although the authorities at the centre said that none of the gypsies displayed any signs of physical violence several showed BHHRG what they claimed were knife wounds inflicted during their expulsion. While it is impossible to say why or how such wounds came about some refugees certainly had marks/bruises on their legs and arms. In July we saw gypsies (mainly women) in a camp in Kosovo, and by the roadside in southern Serbia with fresh bruises and cuts to their faces and bodies. [See BHHRG report, July, 1999]

Form filling and translation for these Albanian-speaking gypsies was provided by a young Kosovar Albanian during our visit. He dismissed all allegations of violence and destruction of property on the part of the KLA made to BHHRG by the gypsies as "lies" even though their accounts revealed a pattern of behavior related to the Group on previous occasions. More worryingly, an application form showed to the BHHRG by the police officer at the centre revealed that the Roma applicant had answered "No" to the question "Were you politically persecuted? « a reply that would mean refusal of permission for that person to stay in Italy. The same young man was observed facilitating the translation and completion of such forms.

Albanian is a notoriously little understood language and customs such as shaking the head to mean "yes" and nodding to mean "no" add to the confusion of people who do not understand it. Other people have complained to BHHRG observers or in the media about inaccurate or manipulative translations by Albanian translators who have had a quasi monopoly on interpreting much information during the Kosovar crisis. Given the mutual antagonisms between ethnic groups and within linguistic groups like the Kosovo Albanians and local gypsies finding competent neutral translators may be virtually impossible but that determining refugee status should be alert to the problem of biased or misleading translation.