In addition, they face discrimination when seeking employment and in receiving assignments and promotions. In the Czech republic, employment offices issue job lists which specify "no Roma. Some Roma have been moderately successful in the trading and musical professions, but the majority are unemployed and poor. Nevertheless, many non-Roma continue to believe that Roma are rich and control many commodities. This image is fostered by the media which regularly reports on "ypsy barons" while neglecting to report on the abominable living conditions of most Roma.
Housing for Roma is generally of a much lower standard than for non-Roma. In Bulgaria, Slovakia, Romania, Macedonia and Hungary, many families live in overcrowded houses with over ten people to a room. Sanitation, water, garbage collection, electrical, heating, and telephone services are vastly inferior to those provided in other neighborhoods.
Segregation remains a problem and Roma encounter hostility when seeking to move. In Slovakia, for example, Roma face huge bureaucratic hassles when applying for new or improved housing. Roma are often prevented from receiving new housing by non-Roma who don't want them as neighbors.
Helsinki Watch reports that in Svinia, Slovakia, the liquidation of the old ghetto resulted in the creation of a new one in two apartment houses and adjoining shacks. Because the government did not build enough housing, about twenty people live in every two-room apartment. The buildings are falling apart, sewage does not work, and pipes freeze in the winter. Conditions such as these result in severe health problems, especially for children, and a life expectancy for lower than for non-Roma.
In health care Roma also face discrimination. In Slovakia, there are segregated maternity wards in certain hospitals, where Rom women have to sleep on stretchers on the floor even if there are available beds in the non-Rom ward. Some countries such as Hungary and Bulgaria have instituted social welfare payments to unemployed Roma, but there are severe problems with the distribution of payments and goods.
Due to corruption of the government system, many poor Roma receive little or no help. With few trained social workers and a lack of Rom ombudsmen, abuses in the system are hard to redress. In large Hungarian cities, however, Rom intermediaries are making some progress. On the other hand, in Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar of Slovakia recommended decreasing family allowances by reasoning that Roma constitute a "socially unacceptable population" with a high birth rate of "children who are poorly adaptable mentally, poorly adaptable socially, children with serious health disorders, children, simply who are a great burden on this society.
Most Roma receive an education inferior to non-Roma because of segregated schools. Schools in Macedonia and Bulgaria which have a high percentage of Roma are poorly equipped and the teachers often give up before they start. Students are tracked away from academic subjects into technical fields. In the Czech and Slovak Republics, a high rate of assignment of Roma to special schools for mentally disabled children persists.
Some Rom children quickly fall behind others because of the language problem; many do not attend school because their parents are too poor to clothe them properly Others attend irregularly because of migration or because they believe that school will be of no help in finding a job; those who attend regularly face discrimination and derision by both teachers and non-Rom students.
Here again, there is some progress being made. A similar initiative in Hungary led to the opening of a secondary school in designed to train teachers and develop an intelligentsia. In the Czech Republic, pre-schools have been opened to aid in the learning of Czech; in some schools in Bulgaria and Macedonia, Romani is taught as an extra class in elementary school.
One problem which has hampered the introduction of Romani in schools is the lack of standardization of the language and the lack of textbooks and dictionaries. Such materials have recently been developed in Hungary and Bulgaria. Another problem is the lack of trained teachers who speak Romani; in Bulgaria, the government has sponsored seminars to train such teachers. In the Czech and Slovak Republics, Roma face discrimination in access to public and private transportation, stores, restaurants, theaters, sports facilities, and discos.
Often signs are posted saying, "No Gypsies allowed. Owners and managers of these enterprises are neither fined nor censured for this breach of human rights. In Bulgaria, discrimination in the army has taken the form of using Rom conscripts for the labor corps, while using non-Roma for military exercises. The most disturbing manifestations of the renewed hatred of Roma have been the numerous incidents of individual, mob, and police violence against them.
Helsinki Watch and other human rights groups have documented over a hundred such incidents from through , with twenty deaths and the destruction of over four hundred Rom dwellings just in the period of Violence has occurred in virtually all countries, but the highest rates appear to be in Romania, followed by Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Bulgaria.
Most of these attacks receive no publicity, but the program in in Hadareni, Romania, in which three Roma and one Romanian were murdered, received much press attention, both in Romania and abroad.
In an altercation on the street in Hadareni, dozens of Romanians attacked four Roma. While fleeuing, one Rom fatally stabbed a Romanian. The Romanians, joined by most of the non-Rom village residents, lynched three of the four Roma; the fourth fled. Then the Romanians went on a rampage, burning thirteen Rom homes and ransacking four more. Amnesty International criticized Romania for the killings and claimed the police handcuffed two of the Roma and allowed the crowd to beat them to death.
Additionally, the police took no action to prevent the looting and burning of the Rom houses. In , a group of forty Romanians set fire to 11 Rom homes in the village of Racsa after two Roma were accused of killing a Romanian shepherd. Extremist groups, such as Gypsy Skinners in Romania and Basta is Bulgaria have formed in Eastern Europe with the express purpose of killing and harassing Roma.
A leader of the Gypsy Skinners said the group plans "to skin the Gypsies, In Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic, skinhead groups regularly roam villages and city neighborhoods looking to beat up Roma, Jews and foreigners.
They also distribute hate literature and music. Istvan Csurka, former vice-president of Hungary and chief ideologue of the Democratic Forum Political Party, recently defended the skinheads: "We must put an end to the sick practice of blaming the skinheads: "We must put an end to the sick practice of blaming the skinheads for everything that is wrong It is no longer possible to ignore the fact that there are genetic reasons behind the degeneracy.
We must realize that the disadvantaged and severely disadvantaged strata and groups have been living with us for too long, among which the rigor of natural selection does not function because it has no meaning. Police complicity in mob violence as well as police brutality have become evident throughout the region. In Bulgaria in , police surrounded a Rom neighborhood in Pazardzhik, violently attacked people, conducted abusive searches, damaged property and confiscated goods and money.
Although Bulgarian president Zhelyu Zhelev ordered an investigation, the case was closed, based on the assumption that no human rights abuses occurred. Police often beat suspects before they are charged or while awaiting trial.
In , 60 Bulgarian police officers raided the Rom neighborhood of Novi Pazar, looking for criminal suspects. Helsinki Watch reports that in some localities in Slovakia, whenever a petty theft occurs, the police immediately go to the schools, pick out Rom children, and bring them in for questioning without their parents.
In Slovakia, village police often impose curfews on "Gypsies and other suspicious persons. There is no doubt that racism fans the flames of anti-Rom sentiment. Having South Asian physical features, Roma are darker than most Balkan peoples and thus readily identifiable. Xenophobic nationalist organizations target Roma as a threat to national and racial "purity.
One of the most common stereotypes is that Roma are criminals. In fact, the word tsigan in many European languages means thief or cheater, similar to the English verb "to gyp" from Gypsy , meaning to cheat. The media reinforce these stereotypes by reporting the ethnicity of Rom criminal suspects while withholding the ethnicity of others.
In fact, according to the Project on Ethnic Relations Report on Roma in Central and Eastern Europe, the rate of conviction for theft is no higher among Roma than the national averages, and the rates for murder and rape are far lower. The few reliable studies of "Gypsy criminality" strongly question the stereotype; a Hungarian study concluded that while crime by Roma is twice that national average, less than 1.
A Hungarian survey claims that the rate of criminal behavior in poor Rom neighborhoods is not higher than the rate in poor non-Rom neighborhoods, suggesting that the most important factor to consider is poverty, not ethnicity. A acute problem regarding Rom citizenship has arisen since the breakup of Czechoslovakia. During the communist period, many Slovakian Roma were brought to Bohemia as unskilled labor, and since the breakup, many of their relatives have joined them.
Now the Czech Republic refuses to recognize them as citizens, but rather insists they must apply for citizenship, with the stipulations of documented permanent and continual residency for two years and lack of a criminal record for five years. Many Roma have no documents and do not have the money to obtain them.
Those that have criminal records have no chance to become Czech citizens. The matter is further complicated by the fact that these Roma are not welcome in Slovakia either. Although Greece does not share a socialist history with the nations of Eastern Europe, the problems of Greek Roma are surprisingly similar to their Balkan neighbors.
In spite of the fact that Greek citizenship was acquired by Roma in and that Roma are an official minority group, Roma are subjected to an assimilationist government policy.
Human rights activists allege that some municipalities prevent Roma from settling and refuse to register than as citizens, there by excluding them from government services. In , a case of unlawful arrest and detention of almost all of the Rom male inhabitants of Megara by the police caused a human rights protest. There are no schools in Romani, and illiteracy remains a significant problem.
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England This advice applies to England: England home Advice can vary depending on where you live. Gypsies and Travellers - race discrimination This advice applies to England Print. Did this advice help? Yes No. Why wasn't this advice helpful? Discrimination on the basis of racial or ethnic origin in education, employment, health and housing as well as other areas is already prohibited by EU law, but the European Commission specifically addressed Roma inclusion by adopting a European Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies NRIS in The Framework urges Member States to develop and implement an integrated and sustainable approach to Roma inclusion and specifically focusses on four key areas: education, employment, healthcare and housing.
Every Member State, except Malta, has drawn up either a National Strategy for Roma Integration or a set of measures concerning the integration of their Roma populations. The European Commission publishes annual reports assessing the implementation of the National Roma Integration Strategies.
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