MINELRES: Belgium Gives Asylum to Slovak Rom

[European Roma Rights Center]

Slovak Romani Family Receives Asylum in Belgium

The family of Anastazia Balazova, who was beaten to death by skinheads
in Zilina, Slovakia, in August 2000, has been granted asylum by the General 
Commissioner for Refugees in Belgium, the European Roma Rights Center 
announced. In the early morning hours of August 20, 2000, four skinheads 
broke into the home of Frantisek Balaz and attacked his children with 
baseball bats. When his wife Anastazia tried to protect her daughter, she 
herself was clubbed to unconsciousness and died three days later from a 
cerebral hemorrhage. The perpetrators, Peter Bandur, Pavel Hrcka, Pavol 
Kozak and Marian Skalican, all in their twenties, were ultimately convicted 
of racially motivated bodily harm and given sentences ranging from three to 
seven years, although the first instance court had refused to recognize 
racial motivation in the actions of the men.

Following Mrs. Balazova�s death, her husband and children were verbally
abused and sometimes physically attacked by townspeople in Zilina,
apparently blaming the family for the bad publicity Slovakia had
received following the vicious murder. In April 2002, while on his way
to Budapest to meet with his legal representatives (including members of
the ERRC), Frantisek Balaz was assaulted by three skinheads at the train
station in Zilina. The family subsequently fled to Belgium where,
assisted by the Belgian League for Human Rights, they applied for asylum
in accordance with the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of
Refugees.

In a letter to the General Commissioner urging the granting of refugee
status to the Balaz family, the ERRC cited several incidents of skinhead
violence in Slovakia and noted that the publicity attendant to the case
had made the Balaz family a target of skinheads throughout the country.
In its 2000 and 2001 accession reports, the European Commission
identified �violence, notably at the hands of �skinheads�,� as a
continued serious threat to Roma in Slovakia.

The ERRC welcomes the decision as an important affirmation that European
asylum systems are still, in some instances, capable of providing
protection to refugees, despite intense pressure to contract the asylum
right to the point of meaninglessness. �The General Commissioner�s
decision indicates that Belgium�s commitments under international law to
protect refugees take priority over political considerations,� said
attorney Alexis Deswaef, who argued the Balaz�s case to the General
Commissioner. The Belgian Home Office did not appeal the decision,
which was issued on March 18.

ERRC concerns in the field of asylum and migration issues are available on: 
http://errc.org/rr_nr2_2002/index.shtml.
ERRC concerns with respect to the situation of Roma in Slovakia are 
available on: http://errc.org/publications/indices/slovakia.shtml


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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

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