I am glad to have secured this debate, as it gives me the opportunity to raise a number of issues. I shall concentrate on minority rights in Kosovo, but I shall refer also to other parts of former Yugoslavia. Hon. Members will have seen some of the recent reports; Amnesty International produced one in April, and in May we saw the latest reports of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe's mission in Kosovo and of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, both of which discussed minority rights. Those reports acknowledge that progress has been made over the past four years—the situation has improved since 1999—while accepting that substantial ongoing problems remain.

I do not think that any of us underestimates the difficulties and problems of the region, given its history and the ethnically based conflicts that have happened there in recent years. We do not expect everything suddenly to be resolved, or to find that the problems caused by fighting over ethnic divisions have disappeared. However, we should remember that there are international responsibilities. When the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo, or UNMIK, was established in 1999, through Security Council resolution 1244, it was given responsibility for protecting and promoting human rights. That resolution referred also to the establishment of an environment in which refugees and displaced persons could return home in safety. A legal framework was created by the UN, and that imposed responsibilities on the international community.

In 2001, the constitutional framework created by the UN Secretary-General's special representative referred specifically to the rights of all communities in Kosovo, including minorities. It spoke about the right of people to use their own language before courts and public bodies, to receive education, to have equal opportunities in employment—specifically employment by public bodies—and about the need for legislation to protect the rights of minority groups. As I said, although Amnesty International, the OSCE and the UNHCR acknowledged that improvements have been made over the past four years, they point to ongoing and systematic discrimination—and worse—against minority groups.

The minority groups in Kosovo cover a huge range of people, including Serbs, Roma, Ashkaelia and Egyptians. In certain parts of Kosovo, especially to the north, Albanians are an ethnic minority. Depending on where they happen to be, virtually every part of the population is a minority. Although there has been a decline in the number of what appear to be ethnically motivated attacks over the past three or four years, they are still happening, but very little has been done to bring anyone to justice for many of the attacks, which often go unreported as a result of the failures and the lack of a justice system.

In the first six months after the entry of KFOR and UNMIK in 2002, the numbers of ethnically motivated killings declined from more than 400 to fewer than 100, according to UNMIK. That is certainly an improvement. There is no question but that returnees are particularly vulnerable to attack, especially in areas where they are in a minority. A virtual system of apartheid has developed in Kosovo. Minorities have been driven into enclaves. Those outside the enclaves are at risk, and even those within them very often remain protected by static or mobile KFOR troops. Children still have to be escorted to school by troops, and people cannot travel freely outside the town or village where they are living without KFOR's protection.

The reduction in the number of ethnically motivated killings may reflect the fact that people have withdrawn into enclaves where they feel safer, rather than their being able to travel and mix freely. In many cases, people have left their homes to live somewhere where they feel more secure. Last year, according to Amnesty International, UNMIK could not supply figures for the number of recorded crimes that were believed to be ethnically motivated and that had led to arrests. Those figures refer not only to the killings that I mentioned. I will not list the incidents that are detailed in the Amnesty or OSCE reports, but they also cite reports of attacks on property, churches and cemeteries, and a continuing problem of access to justice. Many see the judiciary as biased and unable to act, so that attacks are carried out with impunity.

There are problems of access even to basic health care—allegations have been made that doctors refuse to see patients from minority groups—and to education. I was struck by Amnesty's reporting of some of the problems that children experience. Schools have problems recruiting qualified teachers because of security concerns, and problems with the provision of escorts. Amnesty cited the example of a Serbian elementary school teacher teaching in a small Serbian village about 16 km from where she lives. On Monday mornings, she has to be collected from her house by a KFOR armoured personnel carrier and taken to the village where she stays until Friday evening when KFOR returns her to her home. Such conditions still exist.

Employment is clearly a major problem throughout Kosovo. Three years ago, I and two other Members of Parliament went there with the Refugee Council. We went to see what had happened to people who had been to this country through the humanitarian evacuation programme and had returned to Kosovo. It was clear then that anyone who went back had enormous difficulty in finding work. The position was distorted—and I expect that it still is—by the presence of the international organisations. It was striking that, of the number of people we met who had gone back, the one who was best off was doing the laundry for KFOR. Others who had much better developed skills had been unable to find any useful work. All the jobs had been taken by people who had never left or had returned earlier.

The latest statistics that I have seen suggest that, across Kosovo, unemployment is running at about 50 per cent. That applies to the entire working population, but among minority groups, especially among Serb and Roma communities, that figure rises to more than 90 per cent. If one is a member of a minority community, the chances of finding any work are minimal.

The Home Office provided me with an answer to a recent parliamentary question that made it clear that British policy was not to enforce the return of people from minority communities to Kosovo. Unfortunately, that is not necessarily the case with other western European Governments. There are certainly worrying trends developing of forced returns. None of us would be against the idea of people returning—indeed, there is a right of return for refugees—but any return must be to conditions that are safe. So far, the vast majority of the displaced Serb and Roma refugees are not showing any signs of being able or willing to return.

We ought to look again at what UNMIK is able to do, and what support we are giving it. We must examine what resources it has to investigate human rights abuses, to help and protect witnesses, to develop the right of the freedom of movement, and to start to break down the enclaves that still exist. It is a difficult issue, because the withdrawal of KFOR protection around an enclave may be seen in a very negative light by people who feel that they need that protection.

I wish to turn to the issue of the Roma people. There is no question but that their position is desperate, not just in Kosovo but in the whole of the former Yugoslavia. When I was in Kosovo in 2000, I visited a Roma village. It was one of the most depressing experiences of my life. I have never seen people living in worse conditions within Europe. In 1999, Roma people became targets for attack. They were viewed by the Kosovo Liberation Army as having collaborated with the Serbs in ethnic cleansing of Albanian Kosovars. Some may well have been involved in that, perhaps under duress. However, many were targeted simply for working for a Serb employer. They are now reduced to living in enclaves and many have not returned to Kosovo. It is estimated that up to 45,000 Roma people are still in Serbia and Montenegro, and Macedonia. Those who are now living in Serbia and Montenegro are living in the most appalling conditions. They cannot return and they are not accepted where they are. The conditions for Roma people who have always lived in Serbia and Montenegro are bad, and for those who have been displaced there, it will probably be even worse. They live in settlements without even the most basic infrastructure. There is segregation in education where the children can get into schools. There are forced evictions and there is physical abuse by the police and other public authorities.

There are specific problems in Macedonia. In mid-May, a group of roughly 700 Roma refugees in Macedonia attempted to travel to Greece to seek asylum, because of the conditions in Macedonia. However, they are still on the Macedonia-Greece border in a makeshift camp with no proper shelter and no food, water or medical care. According to people who visited the camp, the conditions are dreadful. People are suffering from serious infections. Life-threatening conditions are developing, particularly for young children. The UNHCR has distributed some food, although it was the UNHCR that closed the camp where those people were living in Skopje. They are now on the Greek border, but Greece refuses to allow them to cross into Greece and apply for asylum. No one seems to be doing anything about those very vulnerable people.

Let us recall what we did in 1999, when Albanian Kosovars crossed into Macedonia. We established the humanitarian evacuation programme, which in many ways worked quite successfully. We should be thinking about what we can do for the group to which I have been referring. We are not talking about huge numbers of people, but they are in the most dreadful position, stuck on the border and unable to go anywhere. They cannot return to Kosovo, where they came from, are not accepted in Macedonia, and cannot cross into Greece to apply for asylum.

We should be considering what we can do, through the EU in particular and UNMIK, to provide the support necessary for minorities. We must develop better structures. A recent report from the International Crisis Group made a number of suggestions about what could be done throughout the former Yugoslavia, including trying to persuade Belgrade to co-operate more with UNMIK and to stop actions that may destabilise conditions. The suggestions also included things that could be done by the Kosovan Albanian leaders, the Kosovo Serb leaders, the United States and the EU.

When we went into Kosovo, set up UNMIK and were party to KFOR being set up there, we accepted some duties and responsibilities. There is an international dimension, of which we are part. However, there is a danger that what is happening there now is being forgotten. The feeling is that the situation in Kosovo was four years ago, it is all over and everything is improving there. In fact, there are still extremely serious problems for all the populations, particularly those, wherever they happen to be, that are in a minority in the region.

I hope that my hon. Friend the Minister can tell us something about actions that our Government might be able to take to exert pressure in the right places and to try to ensure that some of the conditions change.

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