The article about the alleged Rroma children in the world Week 44 /2013 is both factually and in its argumentation on a weak foundation:
It is based on a report of the Association of Towns published in 2011, the Bern Police spokesman Alexander Ott and various cantonal police forces. A bit thin an argumentation to generalise the given examples to an entire ethnic group and thus to actually defame it. The quoted anonymous sources from police sources make things even worse, as they suggest at best a form of conspiracy theory.
A true proof to the core message is not presented here. The individual case described about a Rromni who rented a child for 250.- euro may be true. But to take the tragedy of this story for the thesis of existing organized gangs can only be regarded as journalistically and scientifically untenable.
Any counter-arguments to the thesis of the Weltwoche are completely ignored: For example, the study of professors Tabin and Knüsel showing that beggars earn less than 20.—CHF per day in Lausanne is not mentioned here. In addition, beggars organizations are actually a legend from the Middle Ages. No word about this either.
But the article dwells on the prostitution of underage Rroma boys. There is no mention that their customers are actually committing a criminal offence. Victims are made to be perpetrators, and the fate of innocent children is criminalised.
On cannot condone the generalizations about criminal Rroma, exploited by clans and tribes. The Weltwoche may have good reasons to write against the EU and the Schengen agreements, but we ask them not to build their argument on prejudice against an entire ethnic group. Maybe this paper should replace the term Rroma with the name of a different ethnic group and ask themselves if they could still publish it.
- Gut, Philipp/Scherrer, Lucien (2013) Geschäftsmodell: Kinderhandel. In: Die Weltwoche Nr. 44: 2013, S. 20-22.
- Schweizerischer Städteverband (2011) Menschenhandel mit Minderjährigen – Kindesschutz im Fokus möglicher Massnahmen. In: Städteverband online vom 5.10.2011. http://staedteverband.ch/cmsfiles/bericht_organisierte_bettelei.pdf
- Tabin, Jean Pierre et al. (2012) Rapport sur la mendicité « rrom » avec ou sans enfant(s). Université de Lausanne. http://www.oprerrom.org/pdf/Mendicité_Rrom_Rapport_final_2012_EESP_UNIL.pdf
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