comunicato stampa dell'European Roma Rights Center ( Centro europeo per i diritti dei Rom )
riguardante una importante presa di posizione della Corte Europea per i Diritti Umani (ECHR) nei confronti dell'Italia.


Il 14 marzo 2002 la Corte europea per i diritti umani ha accettato come ammissibile il ricorso a favore delle famiglie Seidovic e Sulejmanovic dei Rom della Bosnia, le quali erano state espulse dall'Italia il 3 MARZO 2000, a seguito di una retata delle Forze dell'ordine nel Campo Rom di Casilino 700 a Roma. Prima di giungere al giudizio, l'Italia ha ammesso le violazioni degli articoli 3,4,8 e 13 della Convenzione europea sui diritti umani e sulle libertà fondamentali ( ECHRFF ). L'8 novembre 2002 l'Italia ha concordato di: - pagare un risarcimento danni per un totale di euro 161.290, relativo ai due anni trascorsi in Bosnia dalle famiglie espulse, con particolare riferimento alle condizioni di salute della minore Allissa; - riportare in Italia le famiglie Sejdovic e Sulejmanovic ( ciò è avvenuto lo scorso 13 novembre ); - attribuire il permesso di soggiorno per motivi umanitari della durata di un anno, rinnovabile; - dare una collocazione abitativa in un campo attrezzato ( ancora in fase di definizione ); - fornire cure mediche per la piccola Allissa Sulejmanovic di 4 anni, portatrice di handicap e gravemente ammalata di cuore; - predisporre l'iscrizione scolastica per i figli nell'età dell'obbligo. L'ERRC - Centro Europeo per i Diritti dei Rom - con sede a Budapest ha seguito il caso. Per chi fosse interessato, infondo al comunicato stampa, ci sono le coordinate e il sito di questo Centro, che pubblica un Bollettino trimestrale riguardante il popolo ROM

COMUNICATO STAMPA DELL'ERRC

The Italian government has settled cases brought against it before the European Court of Human Rights by Bosnian Romani families who were expelled collectively from Italy. on March 3, 2000. Pursuant to the settlement, Italy agreed to revoke the expulsion decrees, return the plaintiff families to Italy, grant them humanitarian residence permits, and pay financial damages of over 160,000 Euro. The applicants were represented by attorney Nicolo Paoletti of Rome, in collaboration with the European Roma Rights Center (ERRC). In the first case, the applicants were Fatima Sejdovic and Izet Sulejmanovic and their two children, who were born in Italy in 1998 and 1999. In the second case, the applicants were Paso and Hadzira Sulejmanovic who, along with their children, had come to Italy in 1991 after fleeing the war in the former Yugoslavia. The applicants claimed that the police forced them out of their caravans at the Casilino 700 travellers' camp at gunpoint at 2:00 a.m. on March 3, 2000, and placed them, along with other Bosnian Romani families -- 56 persons in total -- on a chartered flight to Sarajevo. Mrs. Sejdovic had given birth to her youngest child less than three months earlier, on December 22, 1999. Allissa Sulejmanovic, the minor daughter of Paso and Hadzira Sulejmanovic, suffers from Down's syndrome and had reportedly undergone heart surgery in Rome shortly before being expelled from Italy. In its admissibility decision of March 14, 2002, the European Court agreed to consider the applicants' complaints arising under Article 3 (prohibition of torture or inhuman and degrading treatment), Article 4 of Protocol 4 (prohibition of collective expulsions), Article 8 (right to privacy and family life) and Article 13 (requirement of an effective remedy) of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Among other things, the applicants argued that the deportation to Bosnia subjected them to serious mortal danger (their native villages were situated in the now-Serbian entity of Bosnia), that it presented grave risks to the health of the newborn baby and mother, and that Allissa Sulejmanovic would be placed at very serious health risk, without adequate access to the medical care she needed. Several field investigations conducted by ERRC during the summer of 2002 resulted in substantial evidence supporting the applicants' claims. After their return to Bosnia, the Sulejmanovic family was forced out of Sarajevo and fled to Mostar, where they were also attacked by local residents. They then tried to set up their tents in a field in Jablanica and were chased away by police. They finally ended up living in a field in Livno, in the southeastern part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, where they tried to eke out a living by collecting scrap and begging. They received no assistance from either the Bosnian government or from local or international humanitarian organizations. Allissa's health continued to deteriorate significantly. "This family was living in horrific, sub-human conditions," said ERRC Legal Director Jean Garland. "They were in tents and shacks covered with plastic sheets near a garbage dump, without electricity, lights, water or toilets. They faced constants threats of violence and were even shot at a few times. To send families away to countries where they face such conditions clearly violates the European Convention's proscriptions on inhuman and degrading treatment." In addition to returning the families to Italy and paying compensation, the settlement agreement also requires the Italian government to provide the families with temporary accommodation, school enrollment for the children, and medical care for Allissa. The total damages to be paid to all applicants is 161,293 Euro. NOTE TO EDITORS: photographic and other documentation pertaining to the case are available upon request by contacting the offices of the ERRC. Further information on the situation of Roma in Italy is available on: http://errc.org/publications/indices/italy.shtml Further information on the situation of Roma in Bosnia is available on: http://errc.org/publications/indices/bosnia.shtml

The European Roma Rights Center is an international public interest law organisation which monitors the rights of Roma and provides legal defence in cases of human rights abuse. For more information about the European Roma Rights Center, visit the ERRC on the web at http://www.errc.org. European Roma Rights Center 1386 Budapest 62 P.O. Box 906/93 Hungary Phone: +36 1 4132200 Fax: +36 1 4132201