Documents: With tag Roma and visa liberalization

For the first time in the country’s history, on March 18, the first decision ever was taken to declare a state of emergency throughout the country. In this state, the Government could enact decrees with legal force. The second decision was made on April 17. Although decrees were aimed at preserving the health of citizens, they (in) directly negatively affected the economy, and thus harmed the quality of life of citizens, and undermined the satisfaction of existential needs of the most vulnerable categories. Some of the most vulnerable categories are the citizens of the Roma ethnic community, still facing discrimination, poverty and exclusion. The consequences of COVID-19 particularly have affected the most disadvantaged people that depend on daily earnings in the informal economy, who live in substandard conditions and who have not been provided with the means to live a dignified life. In this short overview, we analyze the consequences of COVID-19 until May 2020, regarding the Roma

Project “Network 23+” implemented by the European Policy Institute-Skopje and the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights aims at providing structured contribution of the civil society in monitoring and assessing the policies included in Chapter 23 of the EU Acquis – Judiciary and Fundamental Rights. This report unifies all the findings, conclusions and recommendations that resulted from the monitoring of the areas structured in Chapter 23 – Judiciary and Fundamental Rights into a single coherent entirety. In fact, this is the third Shadow Report published by “Network 23”. The previous two cover the periods of October 2014-July 2015 and July 2015-April 2016. This report encompasses the period between the beginning of May 2016 and the end of January 2018. The report’s period has been extended in order to correspond to the new cycle of European Commission reports, which are to be released in April.

This report on the research into the reintegration of the Roma returnees in Macedonia was prepared within the project “Promoting Sustainable Reintegration of the Roma Returnees in Macedonia”, conducted by the European Policy Institute (EPI), in collaboration with the Non-governmental Organization KHAM. The main goal of the project is to propose and advocate for policies enabling the reintegration of Roma returnees in Macedonia.

This Analysis takes into consideration the hitherto experiences in court cases instituted by persons returned from border crossing points and is based on data available to the KHAM NGO, KHAM being one of the key importance organizations offering assistance in such cases.