Improve the Living Conditions of the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian CommunitiesThe Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian (RAE) minority communities are vulnerable and marginalized, subject to discrimination and harassment. Their political, economic and social needs were largely ignored during the status negotiations. RAE communities face persistent discrimination, particularly in employment and access to public services, and suffer from the highest unemployment, school dropout and mortality rates. Many live in substandard housing, collective centers or informal settlements. There was belated progress in assisting internally displaced RAE in 2007, when the largest RAE camp at Plementina was largely dismantled and its inhabitants re-housed. The same year, returns began from a lead contaminated area to reconstructed homes in the Roma quarter in Mitrovica, burned to ground in 1999. Some families remain at the contaminated site. The forced return of RAE from Western Europe exacerbates the already bleak situation in RAE communities. While RAE made up only ten percent of those forcibly returned to Kosovo in 2007 (with Kosovo Roma mostly sent to Serbia), and UNHCR guidelines indicate that Ashkali and Egyptians are generally not at risk of persecution on return, the impact for those returned and host communities is significant. There is little assistance available to the forced returnees. They frequently end up squatting in informal settlements, or dependent on already burdened relatives. Few have adequate access to health care, school or employment, in part because they lack identity documents, but also due to the widespread discrimination they face. Tackling the economic, social and political marginalization of RAE communities to secure their basic rights is an urgent challenge for the new Kosovo government and its international partners. It must include an effort to assist RAE forcibly returned to Kosovo, providing them with personal documentation, and improving their access to housing and education. Recommendations:
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