PRO ASYL Press Release
8. April 2003
April 8th: International Roma Day
PRO ASYL demands: Residence right for Romany refugees
from the follow-up states of former Yugoslavia
- 8. April: Internationaler Tag der Roma
PRO ASYL fordert: Bleiberecht für Roma-Flüchtlinge aus den Nachfolgestaaten des ehemaligen Jugoslawien - April 8th: International Roma Day
PRO ASYL demands: Residence right for Romany refugees from the follow-up states of former Yugoslavia
INFO
(partially translated)
This is a machine translation by the IBM-supported PERSONAL TRANSLATOR plus. It is slightly edited by combining its results with the translation of SYSTRAN. But you should not rely on it. If you want to use a translated text append or reference the original text.
On the occasion of the International Roma Day demands PRO ASYL the residence right for Romany refugees from the follow-up states of Yugoslavia living in the Federal Republic of Germany for many years. Thereby PRO ASYL follows the Berlin Appeal among others signed by Mr. Paul Spiegel, the President of the Central Council of the Jews. The Berlin Appeal refers to the special historical responsibility of Germany to the 500.000 Holocaust victims among of the European Sinti and Romanies. The situation of their descendants in the follow-up states of former Yugoslavia would be particularly precarious. Ten thousands of them are fled in the eighties and nineties from all parts of Yugoslavia and have looked in our country for protection from discrimination, impoverishment, expulsion and forced military service.
„It is cynical, that German politicians and authorities deal with Romanies mainly under the point of view of their quickest possible deportation in states, in which the must live like outcasts and become impoverished „, said Mrs. Marei Pelzer of PRO ASYL. The denial of residence right is an indication of historical responsibility practiced selectively.. While the policy professes itself to a special relationship of the Germans to the Jews and the responsibility for the Holocaust, Romanies reamin in our country nothing but „foreigners“.
Among the Romanies, having demonstrated at different places of Germany in the last year in favour of their residence right haven*t been few, whose family members had become victims of the German genocide on the Balkans. „Gypsies are to be treated equally like Jews“, it was said in an ordinance of the German armed forces commander for Serbia of May 31st, 1941. This sentence meant: Forced labor, death camps, executions.
