Unregistered and Unseen: The Critical Need for Birth Registration and IDs for Roma in Europe

Date 21 October 2024 Author Torotcoi Simona Category Youth

Unregistered and Unseen: The Critical Need for Birth Registration and IDs for Roma in Europe

The lack of identity documents among the Roma population in various European
countries is a significant issue.

Romalitico field staff supporting Roma in North Macedonia

to obtain birth certificates

Many Roma children and young adults remained unregistered at birth. The risk was
heightened for children born to parents who themselves were undocumented. Many Roma
cannot fulfill the conditions for acquiring an ID card because the legislation requires among
other things a document showing the applicant’s housing status. The lack of formal property
rights contribute to the marginalization of Roma, as it denies access to infrastructure, social
services, and credits, and restricts economic opportunities.

In order to access any of the public services, to which all citizens are entitled to, one
is required to possess proper documentation. The birth certificate is, perhaps, the most
important of all, as based on it, Roma can receive other documents such as national identity
cards or health care cards. In order to have a birth certificate, one’s birth needs to be
registered by one or both parents. The issue many Roma living in SRS are facing is that in
order to register your child’s birth, you need to have documents of your own, which they
seldom do. Thus, the enchanted circle continues. Without the necessary documentation, a
person is unable to register at the employment office, access health care, have a legal job or
open a bank account.

The main challenge for Roma is that many Romani children are not born in hospitals.
This is often due to parents lacking a health card or being unable to afford the minimal
hospital fees. Consequently, state institutions are not automatically notified of these births.
Additionally, a significant number of Romani parents are very young and unaware of the
necessary procedures or the importance of registering their children’s births, leading to many
home-born children going unregistered.

Another complicating factor is that many Romani women give birth at a very young
age. The drafters of the laws did not take into account the possibility of births among young
teenagers. In practice, this gap does not always create problems, as other citizenship
documents are accepted and exceptions can be made for young parents. However, the specific
needs of the Roma are still addressed outside the standard legal framework and procedures,
rather than being fully integrated into them.

Once a person has a residence card, obtaining other documents, such as health cards
and proof of unemployment (which provides access to social welfare), is relatively
straightforward. However, in several countries, many documents, such as birth certificates,
are only valid for six months. This means that every time individuals need to present a birth
certificate (for example, to register for school at each new level of education), they must
navigate the bureaucratic processes described.

A recent submission to the OHCHR by the ERGO Network and the Global Forum of Communities Discriminated on Work and Descent show the specific challenges of acquiring birth certificates and identity documents for Roma in Romania, Hungary, and North Macedonia.

Read here the full submission: GFoD submission to the OHCHR call for inputs on universal birth registration, use of digital technology – Global Forum of Communities Discriminated on Work and Descent – GFoD (globalforumcdwd.org)

Recommendations

1. Ensuring that births of Romani children outside medical institutions are registered
   properly and in a timely fashion is a more challenging problem. Education
   programmes targeting young Roma (especially prospective parents), highlighting the
   benefits and importance of obtaining documentation, are essential.
2. Streamline and simplify the administrative processes for birth registration to make it
   easier for Roma families to obtain birth certificates.
3. Ensure that laws and policies do not discriminate against Roma or other marginalized
   groups in the registration process.
4. Deploy mobile units to reach remote and segregated Roma communities, providing
   on-the-spot registration services.
5. Provide training for local officials and healthcare providers on the importance of
   non-discriminatory birth registration and how to assist Roma families in the process.
6. Offer financial assistance or waive fees associated with birth registration to alleviate
   the economic burden on Roma families.
7. Provide free or low-cost legal aid to help Roma families navigate the registration
   process and address any legal barriers they may encounter.
8. Implement mechanisms to collect and monitor data on birth registration among Roma
   children to identify gaps and measure progress.