UN must compensate Roma refugees

According to the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP), there is new evidence that Roma refugees who were accommodated in UN refugee camps in Kosovo have suffered long-term health problems due to the lead-contaminated soil. On Tuesday (March 6), in the scope of a so-called “side event” of the current session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, the human rights organization will present a report focusing on the health issues of the former camp inmates and their children.

Further, the STP demands the UN to pay individual compensation to the affected Roma, Ashkali, and Balkan Egyptians, and to organize medical care. The Human Rights Advisory Panel (HRAP) of the UN Mission to Kosovo had issued an according recommendation as early as in 2016, after the UN had previously rejected such demands brought forth by those affected and by human rights organizations. However, the UN is not willing to follow the recommendations of its own committee. “It is a scandal that the United Nations are refusing to acknowledge their own mistakes,” criticized Jasna Causevic, the STP’s expert on Southeast Europe. “We expect the UN to stick to its own principles of a rule of law, of taking responsibility for the weak, and of strengthening minority rights.”

The STP’s report is based on interviews with 50 people (who have 213 children). In view of the many health issues of the Roma, it is quite certain that they have suffered life-long damage as a result of the high levels of lead in the UN refugee camps. It would be necessary to work on new medical reports, the STP demands. Following the NATO intervention in Kosovo in 1999, UNMIK had accommodated several hundred Roma refugees in five contaminated camps for several years.

Due to the considerable levels of heavy metals in the area, the blue helmets who were in the region at that time were advised not to father any children in the first year after their return. “The Roma weren’t given as much consideration,” criticized the STP’s expert on Southeast Europe. “On the contrary, the refugees had to live in camps close to a former lead smelting facility for years, despite urgent warnings and alarming findings by an environmental physicist.”

The STP will present its report on March 6 (from 2 to 3 pm) at the Palaes des Nations (Building A, Entrance 13, Room VIII, 3rd floor). We would like to invite all journalists accredited to the United Nations. Jasna Causevic will talk to José María Aranaz, representative of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), and Filippo Rossi, representative of the High Commissioner for Refugees, about the current situation of the affected Roma.

Download the full version of the report here (PDF).