Roma in Europe
The majority of the European Roma live in ‘third world enclaves’. Roma are confronted with comparable, complex problems all over Europe. They live in poor housing, encounter bad education, poor health care and high levels of unemployment. Their marginalised position is the result of structural discrimination and exclusion. Officially, Roma are European citizens that have the same rights and duties as their fellow citizens, but in practice, their rights are largely ignored.
An increased violence and racism against Roma mark growing anti-gypsyism tendencies in Europe. In Hungary for instance, in 2009 a Roma man and his five-year old son were gunned down after trying to escape from their house that were set on fire with petrol bombs by their attackers. In Slovakia, police officers humiliated young Roma suspects by making them undress themselves and approaching them with aggressive dogs. Like in Abu Graib, everything was filmed. In Italy, an incident with a Romanian Roma, accused of murdering an Italian woman, trigged the xenophobic emotions in Italy and Romania: both citizens and officials started bashing Roma openly in the media and Roma settlements were attacked by petrol bombs. Instead of protecting the victims, the Italian government imposed measures for safety and public order.
Violence and hate speech against Roma became more accepted and open. Members of explicit anti-Roma political parties (like Jobbik in Hungary and Attaka in Bulgaria) were elected in European Parliament. The Italian government took fingerprinting measures for Roma, regardless of the strong objections made by European Parliament and civil society. On occasions, expressing anti-gypsyism has proven to give a boost to political careers, like that of the Czech deputy Prime Minister Jiri Cunek, who, as a mayor, became popular by being explicitly anti-Roma.
As long as anti-gypsyism is sometimes more profitable for politicians than promoting tolerance, the implementation of all kinds of well-intended Roma policies and action plans is seriously hindered. Therefore, condemning hate speech and violence against Roma should be addressed vigorously and a much stronger focus on the importance of fundamental rights of Roma in the European Union is needed.
New video from our partner in Macedonia!
Take a look at what`s `Typical Roma` according to our Macedonian partner
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