Combating barriers for exit: Macedonian Roma at the borders

The European Policy Institute-EPI as a partner of NGO KHAM Delchevo, with financial support from the Roma Initiatives Office, Open Society Foundations in Budapest, in December 2015 has started implementing the project “Combating barriers for exit: Macedonian Roma at the borders”. Project duration is 12 months.

The main objective of the project is to contribute to changing of the public discourse, underpinned by policies and practices, depicting the Roma as a threat to the visa free travel in Macedonia. Consequently, the specific aims are: contribution to the understanding of the problem of Roma migration and exit refusals in the aftermath of visa liberalization; Proposing policy actions on remedying obstacles in relation to Roma travel and Advocating for a change of practices on the policy of returning Macedonian Roma from the borders.

The project will examine how the visa liberalisation process as an instrument of Europeanisation has resulted in embedding policies that limit the freedom of movement of the Roma in the case of Macedonia. The project will provide a baseline analysis of the situation of the practices of returning Macedonian citizens (with a focus on Roma) from the border, identify the ill-defined policies and practices, recommend policy change and raise awareness of the problem of returned Roma from the Macedonian borders.