Bulgaria: Information on whether skinheads target Roma and on police efforts to protect Roma from skinhead attacks

Recent documentation indicates that skinheads frequently target Roma in Bulgaria. A 19 August 1996 U.S. News & World Report article, for example, recounts that beatings by skinheads of Roma in eastern Europe have become commonplace, and that "scores" of Roma have been killed in hate crimes in Bulgaria since 1989. A May 1996 report by the United States Department of State confirms that Roma are subject to broad discrimination and intermittent ill-treatment by officials and the general population (OAA May 1996, 3). Roma in rural areas reportedly face the most severe ill-treatment (ibid.) Country Reports 1995 makes several references to attacks on Roma by skinheads and the population at large (1996, 806, 812).

With regard to police efforts to protect Roma from skinhead attacks, recent documentation points not only to a lack of effort on the part of police to protect Roma from these attacks, but to ill-treatment of and violence against Roma by the police themselves. A June 1996 Amnesty International report on police brutality and deaths in custody treats this topic at length. Further, Amnesty International points out in the report that in certain areas, prosecution and judicial officials investigating either abuses conducted against Roma communities, or complaints filed by Roma, are limited by "the perceived need to consider the reactions of the majority population" (AI June 1996, 11). Specific cases of Roma who died in detention under suspicious circumstances or who were victims of ill-treatment by police are described in the report's appendices, attached.

The Bulgarian Helsinki Committee's annual report on human rights for 1995 states that Roma were the main victims of police maltreatment during that year (Objektiv Jan. 1996, 11). Finally, the attached February-April 1995 Objektiv article details a March 1995 attack on Roma by skinheads in collaboration with the police.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the DIRB within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.

References

Amnesty International. June 1996. Bulgaria: Shooting, Deaths in Custody, Torture and Ill-Treatment. (AI Index: EUR 15/07/96). London: Amnesty International.

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1995. 1996. United States Department of State. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office.

Obektiv: Newsletter of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee [Sofia]. January 1996. "Human Rights in Bulgaria 1995."

Office of Asylum Affairs (OAA), Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. May 1996. Bulgaria - Profile of Asylum Claims and Country Conditions. Washington, DC: United States Department of State.

U.S. News & World Report [Washington, DC]. 19 August 1996. Charles Fenyvesi. "Out of the Slag Heaps." (NEXIS)

Attachments

Amnesty International. June 1996. Bulgaria: Shooting, Deaths in Custody, Torture and Ill-Treatment." (AI Index: EUR 15/07/96). London: Amnesty International, pp. 11-13, 16-31.

Obektiv: Newsletter of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee [Sofia]. January 1996. "Human Rights in Bulgaria 1995," pp. 10-12.

_____. February-April 1995. Savelina Danova and Rumyan Russinov. "Skinheads Are Closing In," p. 12.

Office of Asylum Affairs (OAA), Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. May 1996. Bulgaria - Profile of Asylum Claims and Country Conditions. Washington, DC: United States Department of State, p. 3.

U.S. News & World Report [Washington, DC]. 19 August 1996. Charles Fenyvesi. "Out of the Slag Heaps." (NEXIS)