Albania fined by Strasbourg court for segregating schoolchildren
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has ruled that the Albanian government was guilty of discrimination for having separated Roma and Egyptian children in a primary school in the town of Korca.
The courtroom of the European Court of Human Rights. Photo: EPA-EFE/PATRICK SEEGER
The European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday found the Albanian state guilty of violating the anti-discrimination measures of the European Convention on Human Rights by separating Roma and Egyptian minority children in primary school Naim Frasheri from the city of Korca, in the south-east of the country.
The court ordered the Albanian government to pay compensation of 4,500 euros to five families, who filed a complaint in 2017 through the European Roma Rights Center.
“The applicants are 18 Albanian nationals of Roma and Egyptian origin who together form six households. They live in Korca (Albania),” the decision said.
She said the applicants complained of a violation of the section of the European Convention on Human Rights prohibiting discrimination “due to the overrepresentation of Egyptian and Roma pupils at the Naim Frasheri school”.
In an average year, Roma and Egyptian students make up between 89 and 100 percent of children enrolled at Naim Frasheri School, according to the complainants, even though these communities are a minority in Korca.
The court said that the Albanian authorities had not taken measures to avoid the concentration of Roma and Egyptian children in the school, despite the decision of the Commissioner for Protection against Discrimination of the Ministry of Education and Sports to take immediate action to improve the situation.
The Naim Frasheri school is not the only segregated school in Albania, according to Roma and Egyptian community activists, who say the problem also exists in other public schools in Shkodra, Berat and Elbasan.
A Council of Europe monitoring report in 2020 identified the de facto segregation of Roma and Egyptian pupils as a problem in some schools in Albania.
“De facto structural segregation of Roma and Egyptian students in schools still occurs in some places,” the report said.