Roma Win UN Case Over Confiscation of Passports and Travel Bans in North Macedonia

11 March 2026

Brussels, Skopje, 11 March 2026: The ERRC welcomes the decision communicated by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (UN CERD) concerning the confiscation of passports from Romani citizens who were returned from EU countries. The UN CERD found that North Macedonia violated several provisions of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination in relation to the treatment of the applicants in Salim and Others v. North Macedonia.

The applicants consist of seven persons from two family groups, all North Macedonian citizens of Romani origin, who were forcibly returned from Germany in April 2014, following rejection of their asylum claims.  Upon arrival at Skopje International Airport, they were taken to the airport police station for questioning, during which their passports were confiscated for one year. In addition, two of the applicants were subjected to a travel ban preventing them from using their identity cards to travel to neighbouring countries such as Serbia.

On 25 June 2014, the Constitutional Court ruled that restricting the freedom of movement of North Macedonian citizens to protect the immigration policies of other countries was unconstitutional, and the one-year travel ban was unlawful. Despite this ruling, authorities failed to end the practice or return confiscated passports ex officio, thereby perpetuating a discriminatory policy. The applicants’ passports were only returned in April and May 2015. 

In 2017, the applicants and the ERRC filed a discrimination claim against the Ministry of Interior, arguing that the failure to annul the confiscation decisions and return the passports constituted discrimination, and emphasised that Romani citizens were disproportionately affected and that their freedom of movement had been unjustifiably restricted. 

The UN CERD found that the domestic judgments failed to recognise the administrative passport policy as indirectly discriminatory and did not apply the burden-shifting framework required by anti-discrimination law. As a result, the applicants did not receive their passports automatically, no compensation for travel restrictions or economic losses was paid, and no satisfaction for the sustained prejudice was issued. Instead of returning the confiscated passports automatically, the Ministry of Interior instructed police departments that passports would only be returned if the affected individuals themselves initiated administrative procedures. As CERD emphasized, the State failed to take effective measures to implement the Constitutional Court’s decision, including returning confiscated passports ex officio. This administrative practice prolonged the unlawful restriction on the applicants’ freedom of movement and imposed an unnecessary burden on those affected.

“This decision is the outcome of years of ERRC litigation and advocacy to expose the discriminatory practices used to restrict Roma’s freedom of movement,” said ERRC Legal Director Senada Sali. “Together with the judgment in Memedova and Others v. North Macedonia before the European Court of Human Rights, and the UN Human Rights Committee views in Kjazimova v. North Macedonia and Abdulovski v. North Macedonia, this decision rounds out a body of international findings that unmask the different tactics used by the authorities to deny Macedonian Roma their most basic right - the freedom to leave their own country.”

Specifically, UN CERD concluded that the State violated:

• Article 2(1)(a) and 2(1)(c) for failing to ensure that public authorities act in conformity with the obligation to eliminate racial discrimination and for failing to effectively rescind and remedy discriminatory practices;
• Article 5(d)(ii) concerning the right to leave any country, including one’s own;
• Article 6 due to the failure of domestic courts to provide effective protection and remedies for the discrimination suffered.

Having found that the applicants were not provided effective remedies or compensation at the domestic level, CERD emphasized the State’s responsibility to make full reparation for its violation of the Convention and the rights of the applicants. The Committee, moreover, requested the North Macedonian authorities take further measures to ensure that the existing legislation is applied in an effective manner “to prevent structural indirect discrimination and advance substantive equality.”

The decision of the UN Committee can be found here.

This press release is also available in Macedonian.

For more information or to arrange an interview contact:

Jonathan Lee
Advocacy & Communications Director
European Roma Rights Centre
jonathan.lee@errc.org 
+32 49 288 7679

Senada Sali 
Legal Director
European Roma Rights Centre
senada.sali@errc.org 
+32 497 67 60 12