Another Collective Expulsion of Roma from Finland

10 May 2003

On November 20, 2002, a group of thirty-seven Slovak Romani asylum claimants were expelled from Finland to Košice in eastern Slovakia, according to a report by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) on November 21, 2002. RFE/RL further reported that financial support to asylum claimants while their applications were pending had been drastically reduced in an effort to scale down the number of applicants. The recent tightening of immigration and asylum laws in Western European countries is an issue being closely monitored by the ERRC. Further information on asylum and forced migration issues facing Roma is available on the ERRC's Internet website at: http://www.errc.org.
 

(RFE/RL)