Daily Archives: February 15, 2013

Hungary News Eastern Europe News Western Europe

15.02.2013 Worsening Poverty in Hungary

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SRF online reports on the rampant poverty in Hungary and the impoverishment of the middle class. In the meantime, a third of Hungarians is now living below the poverty line. Due to high public debt, the Hungarian government benefits will be massively scaled back. Rroma, with a high unemployment rate, will be the victims of these cuts. The participants of the hunger marches in Hungary say Orban is indifferent and full of scorn, according to Eastern Europe correspondent Marc Lehmann. The correspondent further criticized the failed social and economic policies of the Hungarian government, which have exacerbated an already bad situation.

Source:

  • SRF online (2013) Ungarn wehren sich gegen die Verarmung. In: SRF online vom 11.2.2013. 
News Eastern Europe News Switzerland News Western Europe

15.02.2013 Study on the Right of Rroma in Geneva

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Law students from the University of Geneva, will conduct a study on the rights of Rroma in Geneva and present the results the public. The study deals with the ambivalence and pluralisms in jurisdiction in relation to the vulnerable situation of Rroma and their rights. Fourteen students from higher semesters will be working on this survey under the coordination of graduate students. Specifically concerns are the clarification of legal issues about their stay in Switzerland, their working right, the use of public spaces and the begging ban in Geneva. Scholars in the field of law, NGOs, police representatives, hospital staff, and representatives of the Rroma are invited to participatory seminars.

Source:

  • Roselli, Sophie (2013) Université se penche sur les droits des Roms. In: Tribune de Genéve vom 14.2.2013.
News Eastern Europe News Switzerland News Western Europe North Macedonia

15.02.2013 Rroma Family Deported

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Abdoulaye Penda Ndiaye from the 20minutes paper in Lausanne reports on the expulsion of Rroma family to Macedonia. One of the two daughters of the couple had had a medical problem with the hip, which a condition not sufficiently well treated in Macedonia. The family learned about their fate just after the sudden death of their one-year son, who suffered from a genetic defect. The parents are under shock and are be treated in a hospital in Lausanne against severe depression. The Swiss Federal Office for Migration disputes the claim from the family that the father was persecuted by the Macedonian police, and also discredited the claim that medical care in Macedonia is not available. The family is therefore forced to leave the country.

Source:

  • Abdoulaye Penda Ndiaye (2013) «Mon fils est enterré ici, et on expulse ma famille!» In: 20minutes Lausanne vom 11.2.2013.
France News Eastern Europe News Switzerland News Western Europe

15.02.2013 Rroma Children in Emergency Shelters

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Caroline Gebhard from the 20minutes paper in Lausanne writes about the increasing number of Rroma children sleeping in emergency shelters in winter in Lausanne. The Rroma kids aged up to 6 years live in shelters and have been separated from their families which recently arrived in Lausanne. The shelters are not accustomed to accommodate children. According to those in charge of the shelters, this increase of the number of  children is probably due to the repressive policies in France and the dismantling of Rroma settlements. Vera Tcheremissinoff of Opre Rrom is quoted as saying that parents often let their children with their grandparents, when they go away to collect wood or to beg. The article concludes with the statement that most of the Rroma children are picked up again by their parents, but four or five Rroma children were left unattended.

Caroline Gebhard representation of Rroma parents as irresponsible and leaving their children unattended raises the question of the impact of such statements on Rroma. Rroma Contact Point would once more like to emphasize that individual stories should not be presented as a universal truth for all Rroma and that such a portrayal is in fact racist.

Source:

  • Gebard, Caroline (2013) Les bébés roms s’invitent dans les abris d’urgence. In: 20 minutes Lausanne vom 17.2.2013
News Eastern Europe News Switzerland News Western Europe

15.02.2013 Re-Sentencing of a 21 years old Rrom

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Christian Mensch of the paper “Der Sonntag” reported on the re-sentencing in the case of a 21 year old Rrom in the Basle region. The young man had committed theft in the Swiss border area and was convicted and sentenced by the criminal judge Enrico Rosa, to two years of unconditional imprisonment despite the plea of the prosecution and defensem  for a milder sentence. Christian Mensch sees that judgment in the context of a conflict between Rosa and the Basle prosecutor about heavier sentences. As a magistrate and as an expert Rosa had earlier repeatedly criticized the prosecutor’s office work.

In this context the case of 21-year-old Romany is now being re-discussed, with the aim of “sensible” reduction of the penalty.

Rroma are often mentioned as in this article only in a negative context (here theft) and as such, the press offers a distorted view of the Rroma. The Rroma Contact Point would like to state that by far not all the 50,000 Rroma in Switzerland conform to these negative stereotypes.

Source:

  • Mensch, Christian (2013) Hartes Roma-Urteil wird neue verhandelt. In: Der Sonntag vom 10.2.2013. 
News Switzerland

15.02.2013 Lausanne Criminalises Begging

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The city of Lausanne has decreed numerous zones and areas in the city as areas where the begging is punishable by law. By a decision of the Municipal Council, begging near shops, public buildings, and on public transports is now criminalised. Organised begging is punished by a fine of up to 1,000 Swiss francs. This decision, according to the proponents of the initiative, is directed against organized begging and not against the poor who beg to make end meet at the end of the month. The definition of organised begging versus the poverty begging is controversial to say the least. While some see begging as the work of organised bands, for others this is just the result of poverty, and the criminalization of begging de facto is the criminalization of poverty.

Rroma Contact Point would like to emphasize that the while so-called organised Roma beggars exist, to present it as part of the Rroma identity is highly problematic. The poverty and the consequent activities such as begging, are not part of Rroma identity, but the result of institutionalized stigmatisation and exclusion.

Source:

  • Jaquet, Christiane (2013) La frousse bourgeoise face à la misère rom. In: Gauchebdo vom 8.2.2013.
News Eastern Europe News Western Europe

15.02.2013 Debate on Transit Sites for Travellers in Paris

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Caroline Sallé of “Le Figaro” reported the efforts of the Mayor of Paris, to organise sites where Travellers can stay. The facilities are to be located in the woods of Boulogne and Vincennes, and are politically controversial. These places, to be voted on Paris’ Council next week, are projected to costs 10 million euro. The idea to have sites for travellers on the outskirts of Paris goes back many years. In 2000 plans were drafted but sites were never built. In 2004 there was a plan to create to 200 smaller sites, a number that was reduced in 2009 to 90 sites. Another project was not implemented due to lack of flood protection and inadequate conservation measures. Even the current two projects are under an unlucky star: The Polo facility near one of the two sites is opposed to the project. Furthermore, the sites must be approved and committed to by many ministries, which can take a long time.

That all Rroma are travellers is a Cliché. There are Rroma travellers, but the majority of the Rroma is and has always been sedentary.

Source:

  • Sallé, Carloline (2013) Des aires des gens du voyage dans les bois de Boulogne et Vincennes. In: Le Figaro vom 7.2.2013. 
Bosnia News Eastern Europe News Western Europe

15.02.2013 An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker

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Danis Tanovic’s entry in this year’s Berlinale tells the true story of a Rroma family from Bosnia-Herzegovina, which plays itself the movie. The mother was pregnant, had a miscarriage and was subsequently not properly treated due to lack of health insurance. Only on the third attempt did she get help. The husband earns a modest income by finding and selling scrap iron. Verena Lueken sees the film as a portrait of social cohesion in a Rroma ghetto that is increasingly being tested.

Source:

  • Lueken, Verena (2013) Beilhiebe in Wagentüren. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung vom 14.2.2013.
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