Category Archives: News Switzerland

Travellers in Zurich

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The city of Zurich has allocated a large credit for the move and maintenance of a camping site for travellers in the Altstetten Neighbourhood of the city.

Lausanne and Roma

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Roma who currently live in a house that has been deemed insalubrious will have to leave by the end of the month. There are no real alternatives to their current lodging.

Switzerland and Roma Refugees

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As usual with some delays, a 1-1 translation of an article published last week in the Tages Anzeiger about Roma refugees from the Ukraine and the suspicions that they are not quite what they claim to be.

This of course without a shred of any evidence…

Switzerland and Roma Refugees – 2

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To counterbalance the accusations that Roma refugees from Ukraine abuse the system and are actually not Ukrainians, we did an interview in one of the leading newspapers in German speaking Swiss press.

Switzerland and Roma

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Another two articles in the Swiss press about Roma refugees from the Ukraine who “abuse” the system and are “most probably” not from the Ukraine. All because the Swiss seem to be oblivious that Western Ukraine is Hungarian speaking …

Switzerland, Roma, and Ukrainian Refugees

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Two really bad articles in a formerly good newspaper, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. Here, the use the fact that there are several Roma families from the Transcarpathian Ukraine asking for refugee status in Switzerland, to ask for the blanket approval of Ukrainian refugees to be revoked.

They make statements about false passports etc.

Proofs are not there…

Switzerland and Ukrainian Roma Refugees

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In Switzerland, there is currently an influx of Roma refugees from the Ukraine, mostly from the Transcarpathian region. We have seen many cases, and they unfortunately come from segregated settlements, often as large families (8 children etc.). They mostly speak only Hungarian and a limited amount of Ukrainian, and seldom Romanes.

The article in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung is totally unacceptable. They effectively say they are not really Ukrainian, without any proof, and even put up a picture of Uzhgorod, maybe part of Greater Hungary for the editors of this paper. They insinuate that they have all Hungarian passports, which could be the case, as Hungarian speakers from outside Hungary have been granted passports by Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister. However, one of the pre-requisite is to be able to read and write (and not to be Roma), which does not apply in most of the cases here in Switzerland.

In addition, these Roma, even though they are not fluent, speak Russian and Ukrainian. Which cannot be said of Hungarians.

Switzerland and Beggars

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Ann article in the Swiss boulevard press about organized beggars due to the condemnation of several Roma for having abused people and forced them to beg in Switzerland. When one thinks that the average money made by a beggar in Switzerland is around 20 CHF per day and person, this is really not the most lucrative criminal operation. Such articles generalizing from a single case are really bad.

Switzerland and the Nazi Period

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The Swiss Federal Council remembers the murdered Roma, Sinti and Yenish people. More than 25,000 German and Austrian Sinti and Roma were murdered by the National Socialists. But the Federal Council also looks to the present, where discrimination still occurs.

Switzerland and Roma

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An article about a scam in Zurich, whereby a person asks for food near an automatic distributor, and when a person is kind enough to pay, the scammer selects a charger instead, for a higher sum, which can be returned for deposit at a later stage. According to the victim, a reporter for a local newspaper, she was asked by a “young woman who I would classify as Sinti or Roma”…

Roma in Swiss Press

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This is the text that is presented in this article: Mirabela, Bobi and Ilie live in Geneva and sleep on the streets, in their cars or in emergency shelters. Due to lack of work, these Roma sometimes beg. However, begging is prohibited in strategic places in Geneva’s public space. Roma are therefore regularly arrested and fined by the police. Their debt can reach astronomical sums and risks being converted into days in prison.

It is true that begging is forbidden. But, there is a whiff of generalisation here… And that is bad.

Switzerland and Travellers

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A commentary in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung saying that local Yenishe and Sinti are literally suffering from the travelling foreign Roma who do not respect local rules.

One has to stress here that Switzerland is the only place where camping sites for travellers are de-facto segregated.

Switzerland and Travellers

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The country has an issue with actually providing camping sites to travellers. Not only are there not enough, but they also distinguish between “local” Travellers, the Jenische and Sinti and Manouche and “foreign” ones, i.e. the Roma.

Now one canton is setting up a working group on the topic. See you again in five years …

Switzerland and Travellers

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Another conflict between Swiss towns and Roma travellers. This time in Yverdon. The town has blocked access to a camping site with concrete blocks, preventing the Roma who are there from leaving with their caravans.

There are not enough sites in Switzerland, and the highest court in the land is prompting the cantons to remedy this issue. Nothing is of course done.

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