David Norris (Independent)

I wish to raise a matter which I have raised previously on the Order of Business, on the Adjournment and at the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs committee, that is, the existence of camps for Roma families at Cesmin Lug and Osterode in Kosovo. There are 600 people living there in the most heavily lead-contaminated dump in Europe. I also raised this issue with the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, when he was in this country and the human rights commissioner, but nothing is being done. Children are dying at the behest of a United Nations organisation and people are being forcibly repatriated to these camps from a number of European countries. A statement was issued this week by the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr. Thomas Hammarberg, who visited the camps last week. He said:

The fact the camps have been inhabited for a full decade is no less than a scandal. The international community has a large part of the responsibility for this situation ... I call on European states to stop the forced returns until Kosovo can provide adequate living conditions...

It is extraordinary that in the 21st century countries which are members of the Council of Europe and the European Union can forcibly return people to a situation where their health is seriously threatened. Will the Leader, as a matter of urgency, bring the report of Mr. Hammarberg to the attention of the Minister for Foreign Affairs and ask him to see if it is possible to end this practice and rehouse the 600 people concerned? The highest levels of lead concentration have been recorded in the livers and other organs of small children in these camps. It is a moral reproach to Europe.