Radio Television of Montenegro (RTCG) reported that another case of forced juvenile marriage has been reported to the Police Directorate.

Kontakt plus radio quoted RTCG that an eleven-year-old girl from Montenegro was married to a groom from Kosovo, announced Fana Delija from the Center for Roma Initiatives, adding that she expects the girl to be returned to Montenegro as soon as possible.

The leader of a Roma political party has called Serbia’s top officials to include the interests of the Roma national minority in the negotiations on Kosovo.

Roma Party leader Srdjan Sajn released an open letter prior to Monday’s parliament debate on Kosovo to President Aleksandar Vucic, Prime Minister Ana Brnabic and the heads of all parliament groups recalling that more than 100,000 Roma fled Kosovo.

The regional two-day conference on the rights of Roma, with an emphasis on the use of the Romany language, was held in Gračanica, organized by NGO "Communication for Social Development".

At the conference it was emphasized that the main objective was to develop and increase the trust between the Roma and other communities, the institutions; the standardization of the Romani language, the preservation of Roma culture and traditions, strengthening individual capacities, increasing opportunities for self-employment.

The head of the parliamentary group of the Serbian List Slavko Simić told RTK2 that at the next parliamentary session he will request an apology for the hate speech that could be heard in the wiretapping scandal.

The wiretapped conversations of the former head of the parliamentary group of the Democratic Party of Kosovo Adem Grabovci provoked a strong reaction on the Kosovo political scene.

In Brussels will officially begin a three-year project "Integration of Roma 2020", worth 1.8 million euros, whose goal is economic and social integration of the Roma population in the Western Balkans and in Turkey. Project of the Regional Cooperation Council, which is funded by the European Union and the Open Society Foundation, is actually a continuation of the Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005-2015, during which there has been some progress, but a number of problems relating to the level of involvement of Roma in society remained unsolved.

Kosovo’s President, Atifete Jahjaga, met today with political and civil society representatives of the Roma community in Kosovo, on the occasion of the International Roma Day. Jahjaga highlighted the values of respecting ethnic, cultural and religious diversity in Kosovo. She said it was very important to integrate all communities living in Kosovo, including the Roma community, and that this is one of the priorities of Kosovo institutions. Jahjaga called on the Roma community to be more active and express its needs through the Consultative Council for Communities led by the President.

Dozens of Roma families from the village Plemetin have migrated to the European Union countries in the past few months. Their favorite destination is France, where they feel they have greater chances to win asylum status. Roma families in Kosovo complain for poor living conditions and high unemployment rate have pushed them to flee Kosovo. Ismet Haliti is one of the members of this community who is unemployed and has an eight-member family. He says that he would follow the example of others, to migrate to the EU, if he had the money.

Roma educational center in Gracanica, which eleven years prepares Roma children for further education, is threatened by the closure. The municipality would try to provide funding for the further activities.

03 Oct 14
More than 4,000 Kosovo refugees, mainly Roma, have just three months left to apply for residency in Montenegro or they could be reclassified as illegal immigrants and have to leave.

Dusica Tomovic
BIRN
Podgorica

Sejetin Hitari lives in a metal container in the rundown Konik refugee camp on the outskirts of Podgorica – a city that has become his home since he fled Kosovo because of the war in the late 1990s.

“I’ve got nowhere to go back to; Montenegro is my homeland now,” the 36-year-old said.