Racism and the Roma

March 21 has been recognized by the United Nations as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination commemorates the victims of the Sharpeville massacre on 21 March 1960, in which 69 peaceful demonstrators against apartheid were killed by South African police forces.

The ROMA (Gypsies) remain to date the most deprived ethnic group of Europe. Almost everywhere, their fundamental rights are threatened. Disturbing cases of racist violence targeting Roma have occurred in recent years. Discrimination against Roma in employment, education, health care, administrative and other services is common in many societies. Hate speech against Roma deepens the negative stereotypes which pervade European public opinion. Across Europe, Roma face discrimination. In most countries they are economically deprived and socially marginalized. In many they are abused by the police. Low levels of literacy and qualifications, combined with discrimination in employment, leave the vast majority of Roma unemployed. Women and children form a disproportionate number of the victims. Romani youngsters are widely assumed to be inherently criminal, Romani women are often caught up in violent and punitive raids by police on Romani communities. A report last month by the United Nations Development Fund found that the living conditions of Europe"s Roma population are "closer to levels in sub-Saharan Africa than those for other Europeans."

A startling, but perhaps, not surprising report by human rights investigators in New York and Slovakia released earlier this year found Romani women in eastern Slovakia have been subject to at least 110 forced and coerced sterilizations in government health care facilities since the fall of communism. The report also says that Romani women have experienced physical and verbal abuse as well as segregated health care services, showing a pattern of ethnic bias in Slovak medical facilities.

Polls show that 91% of Czechs have "negative views" towards the Roma.

The former Slovak prime minister, Vladimir Meciar, once stated that: "Slovaks produce first-rate values, Roma only themselves."
A survey of Hungarian police officers revealed that 54% believe criminality to be a key element of the Roma identity, and all but 4% of those believed it to be genetic.

In Germany while the registration of racial groups was publicly condemned after WWII, registration of Roma continues.
Last November the Roma Protest Network (RPN) published an appeal on the net to "please help us fight racism in Romania". The issue at stake was an editorial, entitled "Rromania", that the "Ziua de Vest" (a Romanian newspaper) published on their front page on November 16. Here are some excerpts: "... we Romanians are not the ones responsible for disturbances in the Schengen space, but rather the Gypsies from Romania ... because they beg, steal, and disrupt the equilibrium of the European civilization with their aggression ... ... who is responsible for the shame which makes us feel inferior to other privileged countries (those without Gypsies), just because they lived for hundreds of years in normal conditions?

All of us: The authorities, because they let Gypsies out of Romania without restrictions ... because they don"t make restrictive laws against those thieves, hooligans and killers. We, the Romanians with common sense, have an enormous disadvantage: we are too polite. If we continue to accept being identified with the abnormal (Gypsies) we will become in the end Rromania."

At Prague airport stands the British consular office set up specifically to stop Czech Roma coming to the United Kingdom. In July 2001 two undercover Czech TV reporters exposed the routine discrimination when they turned up at the airport with tickets to Britain, the same amount of money and giving the same information. The Roma journalist wasn"t allowed on the plane; his non-Roma colleague was allowed on.
In three public schools in Denmark, Roma children have been segregated into classes on their own. The only criteria for instituting this segregation was the relative percentage of their absence from school and their ethnic background.

On a very human level take a look at the situation of Nadya Svetkoya. Nadya has the job of using a broom and dustpan to sweep the street of Bulgaria Boulevard in Sophia, Bulgaria. "It"s a miserable job and it"s very dangerous. That"s why I"m cleaning the grass verge instead of the gutter -there"s too much traffic at the moment, and it"s going too fast," she says. Armies of street sweepers, mostly female Roma employed by the Municipality and private cleaning companies, are assigned different roads every morning. Using their brooms and dustpans they are expected to clean the gutters and grass verges on both sides of Sofia"s main roads. The timing of their work, generally between 7am and 2pm, coincides with the busiest morning flow of drivers often hazardously disregarding road rules to struggle into the city center and be first to bag the limited free parking spaces.

For their efforts the street sweepers receive around 100 leva a month, which, after tax, is reduced to somewhere between 80 and 90 leva ( l lever = about US $0.54).

They have no support workers to collect the rubbish that they gather; instead they carry their full dustpans across the busy streets to empty them in the nearest dustbins. Despite the daily cleaning, each morning the roads are again littered with waste.

Nadya hates her job although she looks with pride upon the work she does. "I have to do the job because I"ve got two children that need to be fed," said Nadya. "If I could find something else I would take it, but it"s very difficult with the current economic situation." Nadya mentions, . "My husband is not Roma and he finds it much easier to get work."

Nadya had no idea that today is the International Day for Elimination of Racial Discrimination, and she said that it means very little to her. "Some of the better educated Roma are working to help themselves through Roma organizations, but they don"t help the ordinary people," she observed. The only solution for the problem of racial discrimination here, in her opinion, is quite simply for Roma to be treated as equals by other Bulgarians. "Not all of them are racist," she said. "My husband has no problem with Roma, but right now it"s not a question of having more rights - we"re just managing to struggle for bread. With these salaries what else can we do?"