Integration unter Vorbehalt Integration with Reservations

Several thousand persons have been forcibly returned to Kosovo by Western European states in the last few years. A significant number of the returnees are persons belonging to minority communities, including Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians.

Germany is among the countries that have been returning Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians to Kosovo in recent years. The families that are being returned have lived in Germany for many years, some of them up to two decades.

They are being sent back to an impoverished region that is unable to guarantee to its inhabitants respect for their basic human rights, such as access to adequate housing, health care or education, and simply does not have the means to receive and integrate all returnees. It is expected that in total almost 12 000 Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians, including more than 5 000 children, will be returned from Germany to Kosovo.

Children are the ones most affected by these forced returns. They have all grown up in Germany, many of them were born in this country, and do not speak any language other than German. They are suddenly taken away from their schools, compelled to leave their community and surroundings, which they always considered to be their home, and are sent to a place most of whom have never been to before and whose language they do not speak. A place that is foreign to them.

In Kosovo they are confronted with an entirely new reality. They feel lost and alienated. Most of them become school drop-outs due to language barriers and lack of school documents. Many are unregistered, have no civil documents, and are rendered de facto stateless. Their living conditions are frequently dramatic, and they suffer from extreme poverty. These children’s fate is worrying and their future uncertain.

This study looks into the situation of these children. It has been prepared on the basis of a series of interviews conducted with the children themselves, and therefore provides insight into the lives of these children both prior to and after their deportation to Kosovo. The study is thus an invaluable contribution to the debate about the current repatriation practices, as it not only provides quantitative data about the returns, but also presents the voices of the victims. They should be heard.

Thomas Hammarberg

Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights