Thank you for the opportunity to address the committee today. I am speaking as a representative of the Roma Community Centre, but I've been a lawyer in private practice since 1988. I'm also a former member of the Immigration and Refugee Board, where I sat as a member for five years. I currently represent many Roma refugees.
I'll focus on Roma refugees from Hungary because these refugees seem to be of particular concern. I would like to begin by addressing a question. Hungary is an EU country, so why don't the Roma relocate to another EU country? There are misconceptions about this issue, and there are serious barriers to relocation.
The first barrier is that EU citizens cannot make asylum claims in EU countries, therefore Roma from Hungary cannot, for example, file refugee claims in Italy.
The second barrier is that there is a limitation on the right to relocate within the EU. A person can stay in a country for up to three months and then must either find a job or show enough money to support themselves. Owing to the high level of prejudice against Roma in the EU, finding a job is extremely difficult. When France deported Roma en masse in the summer of 2010, this sent a clear message that Roma cannot simply relocate within Europe.
What is the refugee board doing with these claims? The United Nations stated that the Roma community faces discrimination in all fields of life, and further, they face violence by extremists and prejudice by the police. They arrive in Canada missing teeth because neo-Nazis have kicked them out and with visible scars from being attacked by fascists. They are no different from refugees who come from Africa or Asia.
The board knows this. It accepts that hate crimes exist but refuses the claims on a technical point of law. The Federal Court has begun setting aside some of these decisions saying that the board has made mistakes.
Turning to the DCO list, there are concerns. The criteria for the DCO operates regardless of whether the country is safe. They use statistics of rejected, withdrawn, and abandoned cases to determine whether a country is designated instead of human rights records. This statistical analysis appears to be directed at Roma claims.
We hear a lot about the high number of refused Hungarian Roma cases. Of the cases that came before the refugee board in 2011, just under one in five were accepted as refugees. In other words, of the claimants who appeared before a board member, just under one in five were determined to be refugees. The overall acceptance rate of the board is about 39%. This is very important to consider.
We've also been hearing a lot about Roma criminals. This is a tiny drop in the bucket. In Canada we are surely above racial stereotyping.
The minister expressed concerns that claimants from EU countries don't need Canada's protection because they are bogus. People who work with Roma refugees are at a loss to figure out why this group is called bogus. Why has the minister not expressed concern about growing fascism and racism, instead of condemning Roma refugees?
The Prime Minister recently expressed support to fight anti-Semitism and racism on Holocaust Remembrance Day. We support this. The extremist party in Hungary with 20% of the vote is anti-Roma and also blatantly anti-Semitic and has even forged an alliance with Iran. Anti-Semitism in Hungary is rampant. We should condemn the human rights abuses in Hungary of both the Jews and the Roma.
The situation is Hungary is worsening. A new constitution took effect in January. The changes in the constitution reflect a move away from democratic principles, and the EU has begun legal action against Hungary because it is no longer a true democracy.
So how can we call the Roma claims bogus? Why was the DCO list created to discourage Roma claims? Are the Roma claims proving to be a problem in light of free trade negotiations with Europe? I urge you to consider the fact that refugee determination is a human rights issue and that we have an obligation to protect persecuted people and that this must not be trumped by political factors.