Monthly Archives: August 2014

France News Eastern Europe News Western Europe Romania

13.08.2014 France: vicious circle of expulsions continues

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Brunet (2014) reports on the whereabouts of some 300 Rroma who were evicted from the informal settlement in Grigny (Essonne). While a small part of them has gone back to Romania, the majority of the people will simply join other settlements or build a new camp in a different location. The vicious circle therefore continues. A long-term integration, to which the Rroma aspire, remains unresolved. Many of the children were enrolled in local schools and now have to interrupt or continue their education in a different class. Paradoxically, the local communist administration strived for an improvement of the infrastructure in the settlement, despite its order for an eviction, which resulted in providing of water supply and in trash removal. Disregarding the suggestion of many organisations that the forced eviction hinder a long-term integration of the Rroma, the mayor of Grigny referred to the precarious conditions in the settlement to justify the forced eviction: “A slum, in Grigny or elsewhere, is not destined to stay forever. It would be contemptuous to think that these families with children can continue to stay there, with the rates, in deplorable hygienic conditions”, decided Claude Vasquez, deputy of Grigny, who is responsible for the dossier.” Nonetheless, the policymakers of Grigny seem to be aware that with the eviction the issue of integration has not been resolved and the situation of the affected families often is exacerbated: “The council of Grigny has filed a motion in July and requested a financial contribution by the state for the implementation of a monitoring project, estimating that “the expulsion of the camp without alternative solutions does nothing other than aggravate the misery and causes their misplacement to other place, often in the vicinity.” The statement of the office of the mayor, which announced that one does not assume that the Rroma will settle again in Grigny after the eviction, is in contradiction with this statement. The goal was move the Rroma out of the slums, it was stated. This would require long-term solutions, such as subsidised integration projects, as they are available only for a small number of people. A long-term integration is therefore not yet realised. It must be added that the thousands of Rroma living in slums do in fact only represent a visible minority of the Roma in France. A majority of 100,000 to 500,000 Rroma have been living integrated in French society for generations, but are not perceived by the public. Meanwhile, the eviction policy continues: in Bron, an informal settlement with 120 people, half of them children, was evicted (compare Blanchet 2014 I/II, Rue89Lyon 2014, Wojcik 2014).

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13.08.2014 British elections campaign: Rroma as carriers of disease

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Boffey (2014) reports on the candidacy of the politician Jane Collins for a parliamentary seat in Rotherham. In the spring of 2014, Collins was elected as a representative of the right-wing nationalist UKIP party as a deputy to the European Parliament. Besides to the refusal of an alignment to the EU and the free movement of persons, her policy is based on a critical up to a openly racist attitude towards the Rroma. She repeatedly demanded a comprehensive vaccination of all local children who are in contact with the community of Slovak Rroma in Rotherham. These, she argues, possess a significantly higher hepatitis-B rate than the rest of the population. The Rroma children themselves need to be dealt with within a comprehensive vaccination campaign, she states. On what kind of information does Collins build her claim of an increased hepatitis-B rate among Slovak Rroma? Are these truly objective data or are they rather deliberately politically constructed assessments? It is very doubtful that there are statistics that capture health information based on ethnicity. With the portrayal of Rroma as carriers of disease, who pose a risk to public health, they are additionally discriminated against and marginalised. Already now, a variety of prejudices about Rroma circulate in the British media and in politics, defaming them as social parasites, as unwilling to integrate, and as uneducated and criminal. These statements are not based on facts but on numerous prejudices and on the expressions of suspicion that many people simply accept uncritically. Collins fuels this thinking by making a racist differentiation between healthy British children and virus-loaded Rroma children, in which the Rroma pose a threat to public health. Such statements should not be tolerated under the paragraph of the freedom of expression but rather be prosecuted and punished under the paragraph of defamation.

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13.08.2014 Anti-Rroma demonstrations in Halle-Silberhöhe

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Halle Spectrum (2014) reports about an anti-Rroma rally in Silberhöhe, a district of the city Halle in Saxony-Anhalt. In Silberhöhe, numerous Rroma families have been living for several weeks. At the rally, around 200 people expressed their anger about the neighbourhood’s new residents. On banners, slogans like “We live here!” could be read. According to estimates of Halle Spectrum, in addition to angry residents, there were also members of the extreme right among the 200 protesters: “According to police representatives on site, several participants were known to the police, some of them as criminals […]. A total of eight criminal complaints were filed, among other things for libel, assault and criminal damage. In five cases, simple physical violence had to be applied to enforce dismissals. In one case, the offense of demagoguery is being examined.” – Demonstrations against ethnic minorities such as the Rroma are always also an expression of the ambivalent policies and public opinion towards minority groups. Under the header of “poverty immigrants”, the press repeatedly stated that uneducated Rroma would supposedly migrate en masse into the German social security system, would not want to integrate and would create social tensions. That Rroma were made to an instrument for political debates on migration has rarely been explicitly addressed. Beyond the problematic and political notion of the “Rroma question”, there is the reality that gets far too little attention: For generations, 110,000 to 130,000 Rroma have been living in Germany in an integrated fashion. They work, pay taxes, and contribute to public prosperity. Among the immigrants there are many well-trained, highly skilled workers, who are rarely mentioned in the one-sided discussion. Among immigrants from Romania and Bulgaria, there are not only Rroma, but also ethnic Romanians, Bulgarians and members of other ethnic groups. Conspicuous immigrants are not seldom simply made to be Rroma ​​because of prejudices. The right-wing nationalist protesters, who rebel against foreign immigration, deny all this. The Rroma are not social parasites, but people like you and me. Rroma are not an underclass, but belong to all social classes. Most of them want to integrate many already have, but are not perceived as Rroma.

Germany News Eastern Europe News Western Europe

13.08.2014 Allegations of racism against the family fund of Oberhausen

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Dowe (2014) reports on allegations of racism against the family fund of Oberhausen. According to the critique of association “Mensch ist Mensch”, the social institution treats immigrated Rroma families with many children in a condescending way. Frank Knott from the association “Mensch ist Mensch” criticises that there deliberately create administrative obstacles that are not legitimate but racially motivated: “Therefore, unnecessary documents such as a kindergarten certificate, the last electricity bill or evidence of a possible deposit are demanded from Roma who apply for child support, which lengthens the procedures in an unnecessarily way. “Such things are certainly not required of German applicants – this is pure harassment”, complains Knott and goes even further in his criticism: “In general, there is a harsh tone among the administration when they are dealing with Roma. The feeling is conveyed that they are considered social parasites. […] Meanwhile, the federal labour agency in Nuremberg responded to Knott’s criticism, answering in details in a press release to those objections: “In certain cases additional certificates of child benefit recipients have to be required. However, this is due to the circumstances of each case and does not constitute unequal treatment of nationalities”, it is stated. For a right to child benefit applicants must have their residency in Germany, which explains the need of proof of rent contracts and suchlike.” Racism is a serious offence and should not be handled lightly. Therefore, allegations of racism should be proven by clear evidence and not be handed lightly. If the suspicion of intentional unequal treatment is confirmed, the offence must be punished.

Hungary News Eastern Europe News Western Europe

08.08.2014 Zoltán Balog denies deportation of Hungarian Rroma

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The Hungarian minister of human resources, Zoltán Balog, made headlines with a controversial statement about the deportation of Hungarian Rroma during National Socialism. On the occasion of the uprising in the Gypsy camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, on August the second, 1944, every year on this day a commemoration of the victims of genocide is held. Balog also recalled the events in an interview on state radio Kossuth, but also used the conversation to make some highly problematic statements: “It is important to know that no deportations of Gypsies from Hungary took place. These were done from Austria, that is, the Hungarian gypsies [sic] were taken away from there, and this is why Hungary is also really affected [from the Roma Holocaust]. The figures, however, vary greatly, some speak of 70,000, another of half a million, so it is important to have a solid documentation and research, where we can confront ourselves with these facts. […] I tell you honestly, that’s why I’m cautious on the issue of the Roma Holocaust, because this is a new discovery. The greatest tragedy of these people is that they have no history (…), and what that means, the Magyars know well, whom one wanted to rob their history, we are for a thousand years in one place, and then they find out (say researchers) that we are not or were not there” (Puszta Ranger 2014) Historical sources as well as eyewitness accounts of Holocaust survivors refute all these statements: there were direct deportations of Hungarian Rroma into the concentration camps. The Hungarian national socialist party Arrow Cross provably deported thousands of Rroma into the concentration camps of the Third Reich. As regards the aspect of history: it is true that the Rroma don’t have an own nation-state, but that does not mean that they do not have a good documented history that is thoroughly reviewed. A transnational ethnic minority can have a collective identity without the need to operate on the same rules as nationalism, as one might interpret Balog’s allusion. Balog’s statement that the Rroma should not rely too heavily on their identity as victims of the Holocaust, also caused great resentment. He stated: “I have witnessed the process through which the Gypsy intelligentsia has begun to say:  ‘pardon me, but we too have a Holocaust, and as such we too are part of this history.’ Yet I would still like to caution my Gypsy friends from concentrating too much on this element of their identity. Because even among the Jewry, many have come to the realisation that if the experience of the Holocaust and the knowledge that ‘we were victims’ are the only (or the most important) aspects of Jewish identity, then this creates internal confusion and schizophrenia. And this does not help these communities look towards the future” (Hungarian Free Press 2014). Although this statement may be well intentioned in terms of the social integration of the Rroma in Hungary, it also demonstrates great disrespect for the actual victims of genocide and their memory. From a minister of human resources more tactfulness in dealing with such an issue can be expected. Critics point out that Balog has made himself indictable by denying of the deportation of Rroma from Hungary, which violates article 333 of the criminal code that punishes the denial or trivialization of the Holocaust with up to three years imprisonment (compare Hirsch 2014, Hungarian Free Press 2014, The Budapest Beacon 2014 I/II).

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08.08.2014 Rroma: “They are all Europeans”

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Küpper (2014) spoke with Benjamin Marx, who creates and develops affordable housing for the Aachen housing association. He initiated the refurbishment of an apartment building in Berlin-Neukölln, which accommodates dozens of Rroma families from Fantanele, in Romania, that is considered a showcase project. With the Julius Berger Award, which was conferred for the housing project at the Harzer Strasse, the Aachen housing association wants to improve conditions in Romania itself. Marx emphasizes that by no means all Rroma want to migrate to Western Europe, but primarily a part of the middle class: “Many people go. Those who can afford it buy the tomatoes at discount stores rather than to grow them themselves. That irritates. Growing chickens and farming in the garden is considered a poverty stamp, especially among those who pay attention to “Western values​​”. Who can afford it shares “Western values” by consumption. […] If German children’s [social care] money, 215 Euros, arrives in Fantanele because the child lives there, this corresponds to the average salary of a teacher. No integration and employment program of Romania can compete with such transfers. […] Among the Roma, the “middle class” goes away, the poor and the rich stay.” Marx stressed that he sees the integration of the Rroma as a pan-European task. Deporting the minority from one country to another makes little sense; all European States must participate in the inclusion of the Rroma. This involves a reduction of the wealth gap between the different European member states, which makes migration attractive, disregarding the poor minority protection in certain countries, which is also an essential cause for migration to Western Europe. One must emphasise that already now a large part of the Rroma is integrated in the various European states, but are not perceived by the public as Rroma. The focus is on members of the minority that attract attention because of poverty or crime, but they only make up a minority of the minority.

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08.08.2014 Plombières: Rroma pursued by the authorities demand a break

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Barret (2014) reports on the fate of around 60 Rroma, a third of them children, who are being hunted by the police through the streets of Marseille since the eviction of the informal settlement of Plombières on July the 24th. As soon as they have settled in one place, they are already again disturbed by the police forces. The homeless demand a break from the governmental persecution. Aid agencies criticise that many of those affected are totally exhausted. The organization Arte Chavalo asks for a temporary moratorium of the police evictions until an appropriate site for the accommodation of the 60 persons is found: ““Not a single day goes by without the police coming and expelling them from a small piece of land, where they have sat down. Day and night they are hunted and the police have been ordered to not give them any rest until they have left the city”, the activist of Arte Chavalo explains about the families that each morning get evicted from another car park and another place nearby the Boulevard de Plombières. “We condemn the discriminatory policy which is waged against them and which causes serious risks and disturbances to the public order for the population as a whole, of which children and innocent people are affected”” (Journal La Marseillaise 2014). The municipality of Marseille is required to end this senseless hunt and to provide the displaced families with reasonable accommodation in order to enable the aid agencies to resume their work, it is stated (compare Vinzent 2014).

Hungary News Eastern Europe News Western Europe

08.08.2014 Hungarian film festival: movies about Rroma being censored

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In September, the Film Festival CineFest will take place in the north-Hungarian city of Miskolc. Two films about the situation of the Rroma were disinvited by the program director, because they have too much political brisance for the local elections that will be held shortly after the festival. The documentary group DunaDock, who submitted the two films, states: “probably they fear losing government funding if they show our films”, said Diana Gróo from DunaDock to the news agency dpa. The festival director told the Hungarian media that there would be very well a “Roma program” at CineFest, which would show film portraits of “successful Roma”. The festival management did not comment on the rejected films on Roma. CineFest is among others under the auspices of the media agency NMHH, which is often accused of political censorship on behalf of the right-wing nationalist government” (TAZ 2014). Miskolc is a focal point of social conflicts about Roma. The municipal elections will take place on October the 12th. The film festival takes place from the 12th to 21st of September. DunaDock should have expanded the festival with a program series “DunaDock Master Class” as a permanent section. The documentary group announced to totally cancel their contribution to the festival, given the current circumstances: “The explanation of the CineFest leadership is incomprehensible to us; according to them the film festival takes place at the time of local elections, thus to avoid political conflicts and for security reasons they cannot undertake the presentation of any film dealing with the topic of Roma in Hungary; even their usual Roma workshop is cancelled. We believe that the documentary film is a medium that helps the empathy towards our fellow humans and we find it unacceptable that an independent filmmaker professional program’s freedom can be restricted by current politics. Under these circumstances DunaDOCK will not be present at the CineFest and we have notified already the organisers about our decision” (DunaDock 2014). Critical commentators see the disinvitation of the films as symptomatic of the ongoing dismantling of democracy in Hungary, at the expense of media freedom, the protection of minorities, pluralism and the rule of law (compare Kleine Zeitung 2014, Pusztaranger 2014, Spiegel 2014).

France News Western Europe

08.08.2014 France: more evictions of informal settlements

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Several French newspapers reported on the eviction of two informal Rroma settlements in Grigny, in the department of Essonne. On August the 5th, at 7 o’clock in the morning, the French authorities began the evacuation of the camp. Around 100 people were still present. The two settlements housed up to 300 people. 30 people will be included in an integration project, which will helps them to find jobs, to enrol their children in school and to improve their French skills. The remaining displaced persons were offered temporary accommodation. However, this does not resolve their problems. Most of those affected have already been evicted several times. Eighteen months ago, they had been driven off the neighbouring village. Nicolas Covaci, a former resident of the camp, complains: “You always, always get displaced. Nonetheless you work. There are ten families who have worked here regularly” (Francetv info 2014, compare Europe1 2014, Le Figaro 2014, RTL France 2014). One has to emphasise that the evictions of settlements complicate a long-term integration of the Rroma immigrants. Through the evictions, the pending problems and the question of integration are simply moved from one location to the next, but not resolved. Normally, new settlements are rebuilt after a very short time. With the media focus on the informal settlements, one suggests that there are only Rroma belonging to the underclass and who are poorly educated. However, according to estimations of the Rroma Foundation, around 100,000 to 500,000 Rroma are integrated and live unobtrusively in French society. The French media, the public and politics continuously neglect them.

Hungary News Eastern Europe News Western Europe

08.08.2014 Forced evictions of Rroma in Miskolc

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Pester Lloyd (2014) reports on the government-initiated evictions of Rroma in Miskolc. The enforced relocation leads to sustained demonstrations by residents and activists. About 600 people are supposed to make place for the expansion of a football stadium with a large parking space. Previously, the administration tried to prompt the Rroma to a voluntary relocation with premiums. Most of the apartments have been released for eviction due to overdue in payments by the inhabitants: “With rallies on site one wants to prevent the eviction and forced resettlement of 200 families and up to 600 people – who are supposed to move into an auxiliary settlement in the suburbs or to completely move away, each with a few thousand Euro compensation. “Ethnic cleansing” this is termed by the activists. […] On Wednesday, the first two homes were evacuated, one of which was occupied by an elderly woman with an amputated leg, the other by a family with three minor children. The parents were absent at the time of the administrative action. Contrary to popular stereotypes, the father was working and the mother was attending a training session.” Pester Lloyd further criticises that the eviction is illegal, despite of official court rulings, since the eviction is dealing with a municipal housing estate and not illegal buildings. Rents were in fact paid what renders the blanket judicial decision unlawful: “The Fidesz city-government, first of all mayor Ákos Kriza, is – despite the criticism – happy that “the rule of law in Miskolc works”, “the evictions are legal, “because the families have not paid rent to the city for years”. Opposition parties, civil rights activists and representatives of affected persons speak of “inhumane” and “illegal” actions on the part of the city-government and handed documents to the media, which should prove the payment of overdue bills.” Pester Lloyd sees the action as a renewed proof that the constitutional system in Hungary is gradually being degraded by the Fidesz-government.

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08.08.2014 Chronicle of the „Rroma house“ in Duisburg

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On the occasion of the evacuation of the so-called “Rroma house” in Duisburg, Jakob (2014) takes look at the history of the three apartment buildings that housed up to 1,400 people at peak times. Since 2009, the residential complex “In den Peschen”, which had been purchased by the real estate agent Branko Barisic, was in the headlines. It was mostly due to the voices of angry residents who were complaining about noise, pollution, and petty crime. The Rroma themselves – if they really were all Rroma from Romania and Bulgaria, as it was claimed – remained largely unheard and were stylised as a bunch of uneducated poverty immigrants abusing the German social welfare system and spreading disorder and chaos. Again and again, culturalising arguments were evoked, one spoke of two colliding worlds, of the alleged anti-social behaviour and backwardness of immigrated Rroma. That the immigrants are socially disadvantaged families who are looking for better life in Germany was largely concealed. Likewise, that poverty has nothing to do with ethnicity and therefore there are also poor ethnic Romanians, Bulgarians who move to Western Europe. However, that it a mass exodus of “poverty immigrants” into the German social welfare system occurred, as was repeatedly claimed, is doubtful: there were always well-educated migrants, who didn’t receive any media attention. Critical statistics could not detect a mass influx from the new Schengen countries Romania and Bulgaria. Many stayed at home in their familiar social environment.

Jacob tries to show that the immigrants were largely left by themselves in their attempt to integrate and that a little bit more help by the authorities and residents would not have allowed the situation to escalate in such a way: “Little by little, the citizen protests against the Roma mixed with right-wing radicals. In the Internet there were calls to attack the house. In the local elections in May, right wing extremists received nowhere more seats than in North Rhine-Westphalia [NRW]. Pro NRW, which had demonstrated in front of the house, has since then send four representatives into the city council, the NPD one representative. The city saw the Roma mainly as a problem: a year ago, city director Reinhold Spaniel explained in the taz that the “social behaviour of many Roma” was “an impertinence”. The city was “completely overwhelmed” by them financially, Spaniel said. Duisburg feared the influx of other “economic refugees” and probably also an escalation of the situation. The Roma should go. […] While the neighbours were giving interviews to the TV-crews, Horst Wilhelm B., former caretaker, sat separately on his scooter and watched the exodus of the Roma. “They are pigs”, he says later quietly. He meant the neighbours. “They simply did not want any Gypsies here.” They were already offended when the children went to school and made ​​some noise. […] He himself didn’t want to live in the house any longer either, but the city didn’t do anything to give the people a chance in Duisburg. “Maybe”, says B., “everything would not have been so bad if the people had got some help.”” Jacob shows memorably that the integration of the people doesn’t only depend on their adaptability and willingness to integrate, but also on the willingness to incorporate them by residents and authorities. When both sides endeavour a successful integration, integration is usually effective. That this is absolutely possible prove the 110,000 to 130,000 Rroma who live integrated in Germany, often since generations. They are mostly ignored by the media.  

Moldova News Eastern Europe News Western Europe

06.08.2014 Stereotypes: Rroma as child robbers

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Several British tabloids report on the fate of the Belarusian model Olga Romanovich. The beauty queen was allegedly kidnapped as a four year old from her birth mother in Moldova. The child robbers are termed as gypsies. From these, she was supposedly sold for a pair of gold earrings to another Rroma family that wished to have a daughter in addition to their son: “Her birth mother Tamara fled an abusive husband with Olga and was initially cared for at a railway station by gypsies who persuaded her to move from her home in Belarus to Moldova. She had to beg on the street with her daughter, before she was tricked into giving up her child during a car journey. They stopped at a shop, and gave her money to buy cigarettes, before driving off with her baby who was sold to another gypsy, who lived in the town of Soroki near the Ukrainian border. The woman who bought her had a son but wanted a daughter too, and “bought” Olga for a pair of golden earrings and a tiny sum of money, though she Olga was largely raised by this woman’s mother” (The Huffington Post 2014). The stereotype of Rroma as child robbers reaches back to their arrival in Western Europe. The prejudice is based on the idea that Rroma are deliberately anti-social living groups who steal their livelihood from the hard-working majority population and enrich themselves from them by illegal means. However, Rroma are not more criminal than other ethnic groups. Trafficking of children has nothing to do with the culture of the Rroma, as the articles cited here suggest. It is a racist prejudice that has been handed down for generations (compare Cockroft 2014, Hartley-Parkinson 2014, Metro News 2014, Stewart 2014).

Germany News Eastern Europe News Western Europe

06.08.2014 Stereotypes: Rroma as patriarchal and misogynistic

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Mühlenschulte (2014) reports on a ten-day German-language course at the Wisseler lake in North Rhine-Westphalia, which was organised by the youth organization Lalok Libre. Among the 35 children aged 4 to 17 years, there were 30 Rroma children. The article tries to show integration efforts of recently immigrated Rroma families, but reproduces numerous negative stereotypes and prejudices by equating Rroma with alienation from education, high numbers of children, patriarchal structures, and with poverty. That a lack of education and high numbers of children are the result  of poverty, a phenomenon that exist independently of ethnicity, is not discussed. Therefore, a one-sided notion of Rroma as poverty immigrants is mediated and erroneously equates socioeconomic circumstances with culture: ““You have to respect women girls”, says Venetia Harontzas to two Roma boys. “The girls here must be like your sisters!” […] Worlds are said to collide at the Dresden street/corner Grillostraße, reports Harontzas. But also among the Roma there big differences, she states. The majority are cooperative. “Actually, these are kids like everyone else, they just grow up in another community”, the Lalok president states. In a society in which women are often only seen as breeding machines, and girls are getting their first child at the age of 14, their second at 16, and many more would follow. The Roma Matei Rostas confirms this. “A sensitive issue”, says Harontzas. Soon one wants to talk with the Roma families about contraception, which is often a foreign word to them, she states.” There are also many well-educated Rroma who do not conform to these stereotypes. Especially in Germany, where a majority of 110,000 to 130,000 Rroma have been living integrated for generations and are represented by the central council of German Sinti and Roma to the public. Unfortunately, they are almost never discussed in the media. Contraception has nothing to do with ethnicity, but is influenced by the level of education and sometimes by religious affiliation. In addition, notions of cultural traditions such as an early age of marriage or the role of women should be treated with caution, since they apply only to traditional Rroma and are subject to social changes. Therefore, Rromni often have considerable influence in their families, especially women after the menopause. The supremacy of men has more representative character than that real hierarchies would exist.

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06.08.2014 Memorial of the Rroma Holocaust

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Many international newspapers reportes about the mass murder of Rroma on the occasion of the 70th commemoration of the evacuation of the Gypsy camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau. On August the second, 1944, the remaining 3000 inmates of the camp were killed. The inmates of the Gypsy camp actively resisted and barricaded themselves in the barracks. After the rebellion was put down, approximately 3000 of the 6000 Rroma were classified as capable of working and taken to other labour camps. The remaining 3000 – mostly children, women and old people – were gassed or shot. Previously, tens of thousands had already been deliberately starved to death or died of plagues and epidemics. The interior minister of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Reinhold Gall, pointed out in his speech that the Nazi atrocities would not have been possible without the opportune collaboration of the authorities and the police. It is therefore necessary to critically question this passive tolerance but also active support of fascism: “He pointed to the asylum decree of the ministry of the interior of Württemberg in November the 7th, 1938, which made it possible that children could be classified as “Gypsies” and interned into protectorates. “For too long, the authorities have not concerned themselves with their own history”, he said. Also Thomas Schnabel, director of the museum of contemporary history, pointed out the “fatal cooperation between police, interior ministries and the Gestapo.” For example, the police of Karlsruhe had gathered 150 Sinti and Roma in the courtyard of its bureau to bring them to the collection camp Hohenasperg, from where they were deported to Auschwitz” (Schmidt 2014). The chairman of the central council of German Sinti and Rroma, Romani Rose, emphasised in his speech at Auschwitz, under the presence of survivors and politicians, the worrying rise of right-wing nationalist and extreme right-wing parties and groups: “With great concern we see that right-wing extremist and violent parties and organisations in Europe are increasing and find an echo to their slogans into the mainstream of society” (Baltic Rundschau 2014). Roses indication of the missing lessons of history is of particular importance. Only through an insufficient remembrance of past atrocities against minorities such as the Roma can the renewed rise of racism against marginalized groups be explained. These tendencies are reinforced and fuelled by economic and social issues. At the commemoration, young Rroma from 25 European countries were present. The memory of the atrocities committed by the Nazis should not be forgotten and passed on to the younger generation. In his speech to the German Bundestag on January the 27th, 2011, Zoni Weisz called the genocide of the Rroma justifiably the “forgotten Holocaust”. Repression was rarely the right method to sort out a problem. West Germany only recognized the Rroma genocide in 1982,  at which time, many of the survivors had already died. The Holocaust of the Rroma is repeatedly falsely equated with the word Porrajmos, also in some of the articles cited here. The expression, which emanates from the verb porravav and means “to open widely”, is often used in the context of sexual activity and is therefore not appropriate to describe a genocide. Among the Rroma there is no recognized term to describe the Rroma Holocaust (compare ARD Tagesschau 2014, Deutsche Welle 2014, Gribben 2014, Gulyas 2014, Keating 2014, Kushen 2014, Libération 2014, MDR 2014, MiGAZIN 2014, Roth 2014, Die Welt 2014, Weisz 2014, Wetzel 2014).

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe News Western Europe

06.08.2014 KZ Lety: demand for an appropriate memorial instead of pig farm

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During the occupation by the Nazis, there was a concentration camp for Rroma in the South Bohemian town of Lety, which was operated by Czech collaborators. Some 1,300 people were interned there; hundreds of them were murdered. Despite this grim finding, today there still is no memorial at the site of the former labour camp. Instead, there is a pig farm built under communist rule. This irreverent handling of a memorial site was protested against for years. Culture Minister Daniel Herman reaffirmed in a broadcast by the Czech radio the plans to establish a permanent memorial: “I am very pleased that the Prime Minister has asked me and Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier this spring during the commemorations in Lety to find a solution for the pig farm, and if appropriate, to seek its transfer. The aim is to build a memorial at the site of this former concentration camp, since currently, the memorial is located on the former burial ground. […] Of course, we want that there is a solution during the mandate of our government, because we feel responsible that it has not yet happened. It is certainly a disgrace in the accounting of our past. I think it is necessary that one also confronts the painful moments. And it is necessary to remember that this camp was not under the auspices of German Nazis, but was led by their Czech collaborators. The guards were Czechs. And that’s actually our share of the Holocaust against the Roma. We have to face this issue.” The poor handling of the historical heritage of the Rroma Holocaust is emblematic of the insufficient respect for the minority in the present. Segregated schools, discrimination in the labour market and widespread prejudices continue to make the life of the Rroma anything but easy (compare Kraus 2014). – The chairman of the right-wing nationalist Úsvit party, Tomio Okamura, provoked a political outcry on Monday when he announced that no one had died in Lety. The concentration camp of Lety was a myth, he stated. Numerous politicians, including the Czech minister for human rights, Jiří Dienstbier, called for his resignation (Prager Zeitung 2014).

Bosnia Germany News Eastern Europe News Western Europe North Macedonia Serbia

06.08.2014 Debate on the status of safe countries of origin

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Rüssmann (2014) reports on the ongoing debate about the status of safe countries of origin, which Serbia, Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina are scheduled to receive from Germany. The draft law on the three Eastern European countries is currently being discussed in parliament. Because the representatives of the green party have turned against this attempt in all provinces until now, it is still pending. If only one green governed state agrees, the law can be adopted. Councils of refugees and asylum forums are decidedly opposing this attempt and they are reminding green party members of parliaments of the need for their steadfastness. The debate is fuelled by a recent decision of the Macedonian constitutional court: The court has ruled that the passport act, which allows the withdrawal of nationality when a Macedonian is deported due to a negative asylum application, is unlawful to Macedonia’s constitution and to the human rights. Added to this are questionable practices at the border, where potential asylum seekers are prevented from leaving: “Macedonia has, like Serbia, tightened its exit permits more and more. This was done under pressure from the EU to obtain the visa waiver. Therefore, since 2010, Macedonian border guards may prevent people from leaving when they harm international relations – as plain text: if a person wants to seek asylum in the EU. As a result, over 10,000 people, particularly Roma, have been denied exit by mid-2013, according to a pro-asylum reports, with reference to the human rights commissioner of the council of Europe and the U.S. state department.” To deny a citizen to leave his country contradicts international law. However, the German federal office for migration sees this differently and states that the right to leave is not a “basic human right”. As we already stated several times, there is also the problem that with the status of a safe country of origin, official assessments of the security situation of minorities in a given country are put above the real life experiences of individuals. Officially, a country can respect the security and rights of minorities. However, this does not mean at all that this really happens in everyday life, as shocking individual destinies reveal.

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01.08.2014 Trial: racist Facebook posts against Rroma

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Several Austrian newspapers report on a court case against the members of an anti-Semitic Facebook-group, who, in a series of messages against the Rroma openly called for violence against the minority: “Because of racist comments on Facebook about a tumultuous confrontation between locals and members of the Roma on September the 2nd, 2013 in Bischofshofen, on Wednesday seven out of eight accused men aged 18-39 years stood on trial. Some of the accused who are mostly coming from Salzburg are accused to have called for violence” (Salzburger Nachrichten 2014/I). Through extensive research work, the authorities were able to reconstruct all entries of the Facebook group that were deleted after the initiation of the lawsuit. The eight-mentioned members of the group were accused of racist abuse and demagoguery. Seven of them are now standing trial where they had to justify their hostility: ““Molotov cocktails” ought to have been thrown into the camp of the Roma and “the riffraff should be exterminated”, coud be read there. A defendant actually requested the “final solution” the [prosecutor] Neher stated disgustedly. These comments were visible to the 2,442-members of the Facebook group, the prosecutor blamed the accused. One asked for violence against the Roma and they were “insulted in inhumane, hurtful way. […] The reproached offenses are punishable by a sentence of up to two years” (Salzburger Nachrichten 2014/I). Most of the respondents replied that they didn’t mean it seriously and got carried away by the other entries. This raises the question as whether one can in any context be “not serious” with such inhuman statements. Telling is that most of the accused considered themselves immune from prosecution in the anonymity of the internet and didn’t expect any consequences for their actions. Only one of the accused was effectively present at the physical confrontation near the ski jump in Bischofshofen. During the riots the youths provoked around 200 Rroma who camped legally on the grounds near the ski jump. After initial verbal attacks the conflict quickly degenerated into a physical pogrom. As the Kurier (2014) communicated on the evening of July the 30th, all the accused were sentenced to suspended sentences of imprisonment, the maximum amounted to four years (compare Die Presse 2014, ORF 2014, Salzburg 24 2014, Salzburger Nachrichten 2014/II).

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01.08.2014 Stara Zagora, Bulgaria: Rroma settlement evicted

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Clashes between the police and resident of the Rroma district of Stara Zagora occurred following the decision of the mayor Zhivko Todorov to evict the residents of 55 homes. The eviction began on the morning of July the 21st. The houses had been built without the necessary permits. Residents and sympathizers formed a human chain and a barricade to prevent the authorities from evacuating the homes. Three policemen were injured in the clashes, as the residents threw bricks at the police. Two demonstrators were subsequently arrested. The administration mobilised nearly 1,000 police officers to ensure the safety during the eviction. Immediately after the evacuation of the residents, the destruction of the houses began. The owners of the houses wanted to claim their rights at the European court of human rights. Mayor Zhivko Todorov answered that there is no way to legalise the buildings since they are located on private land of the Borova Gora park. The residents called the administration to provide them with alternative housing. They said that they are willing to pay for water and electricity. The Sofia Globe (2014) reports that the city of Varna plans to evacuate 200 more homes built illegally (compare Daily Mail 2014, Der Standard 2014, Novinite 2014 I/II/III/IV, Sim 2014). In Bulgaria one has to state that the uncompromising destruction of informal Rroma settlements hinders a long-term integration of the minority that suffers from high levels of discrimination and marginalisation. In Bulgaria there are an estimated 700,000 to 900,000 Rroma. Many of them are integrated and are not mentioned in the public debate about the minority.

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01.08.2014 Rroma murders in Hungary: suppression instead of commemoration

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On the occasion of the fifth commemoration day of the last murder in a series of racially motivated killings in Hungary, Verseck (2014) reports on the legacy of the events. The assessment is sobering: The murders are still predominately kept quiet: repression and hatred dominate instead of commemoration. On August the third 2009, a Rromni and her daughter were shot in their home by right-wing extremists. In the previous months four more Rroma had already been killed and 55 people were injured, some seriously: “Today, five years after the last murder, public commemoration is practically non-existent in Hungary. “Both to the members of the former socialist-liberal government, in whose tenure the murders were committed, as well as to the current government under Viktor Orbán, the subject is embarrassing”, says the former liberal member of parliament József Gulyás. In 2009, he led a parliamentary inquiry committee on the Roma murders. […] However, many things should be accounted for. Similar to the case of the NSU-murders, Hungarian authorities played an inglorious role during the series of murders: intelligent services kept knowledge about the perpetrators secret. Hints into far-right milieu were followed too late, investigation findings were not centralised in time and compared. […] The surviving victims didn’t hear any apology so far from the representatives of the former socialist-liberal government.” After all, Zoltán Balog, Minister of Human Resources, initiated victim support for the survivors, who were paid between four and seven thousand Euros. Nevertheless, the living conditions for most of them remain precarious: many of them live without running water, gas or sewage connection. The convictions of the perpetrators are continuously delayed. The judge of the first instance has not handed in a written verdict about his trial, which is why the subsequent proceedings against the accused cannot be continued. Disciplinary proceedings were initiated against the judge.

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01.08.2014 Nanterre/Aulnay-sous-Bois: more Rroma settlements evicted

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In Nanterre and Aulnay-sous-Bois in the Paris suburbs, more illegal Rroma settlements were evicted following court decisions. The settlement in Nanterre housed 300 to 400 people and was located on a wasteland near a highway and a railway line. When the security forces started the evacuation, there were still about 150 people present on the premises. The prefecture of Nanterre said they had pre-booked 123 hotel beds, from which only nine people wanted to make use of. The lawyer of the Rroma, Julie Launois-Flacelière, applied to the European Court of Human Rights and called for the suspension of the evacuation. However, this had no effect. The city council communicated that maintaining a slum near a highway was not desirable either for the affected families or for the city. In Aulnay-sous-Bois an informal Rroma camp was also evicted. It encompassed about 400 people, including around 100 children, the majority of Romanian origin. François Siebecke, from a local charity, criticised that months of work for the children’s schooling and access to medical care had been destroyed by the eviction. According to the prefecture of Aulnay-sous-Bois, none of the displaced persons demanded alternative accommodation. In the summer months, the number of evictions usually rises significantly. On one side, this has to do with seasonal factors, since one usually admits the residents of the settlements a limited right to remain because of cold winters. On the other hand, some judges consider the enrolment of Rroma children in their decisions and wait with the evictions until the school year has ended (compare Hubin 2014, Le Parisien 2014 Libération in 2014, RTL France 2014). It has to be emphasized that the governmental evacuations of informal settlements significantly complicate a long-term integration of the Rroma migrants. Although the forced evictions solve the short-term problems of the local communities, the actual problems for those affected still remain. Mostly, after a very short period, new informal camps are established at other locations. Through the media focus on illegal settlements, the public gets the impression that there are only Rroma belonging to the lower class, who are poorly educated. However, according to assessments of the Rroma Foundation, an estimated 100,000 to 500,000 invisible Rroma live in an integrated and unobtrusive way in France, many since several generations. They are totally disregarded in the public debate. Rroma should not to be equated with an underclass. They belong to all social classes.

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