Author Archives: Roma Foundation

Croatia News Eastern Europe

Croatia: Racism or Not?

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Croatia: Racism or Not?

In Premantura, an iftar evening organized by the Croatian Roma Association Kali Sara, led by Suzana Krčmar, to celebrate Ramadan, turned into a dispute between the organizers and the restaurant owner. According to the restaurant, many more guests came, and a 1’800 euro bill was left open.

Croatian MP Veljko Kajtazi also attended the event, who also gave a statement to local media about the incident.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Novo Mesto Story

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Novo Mesto Story

For a change, a positive story about Roma in Novo Mesto, Slovenia. Đani, Nejc and Samo. Three names that could just be part of the everyday city hustle and bustle, are today something more. They are proof that it is possible – if you want it. All three are members of the Roma community and full-time employees of the Novo Mesto Municipal Corporation, where they take care of the city’s order every day. They empty bins, collect waste, maintain public spaces. The work is not always easy, but it has weight. And it has meaning. When you meet them in the field, you don’t just see workers – you see people who were given an opportunity and took it seriously.

News Eastern Europe Serbia

Serbian Elections and Vučić

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Serbian Elections and Vučić

The DW article had repercussions: Accusations of vote buying, new registration of voters, and also, Roma Sherifs (sic.) who promised Vučić that 90% pf the Roma will vote for his list.

Bad.

News Eastern Europe Serbia

Serbian Elections and Roma

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Serbian Elections and Roma

A reportage by Deutsche Welle ahead of the local elections in ten municipalities in Serbia. The DW team was in one of them, in Bor, where there is a lot of talk about the bought votes of local Roma and a sudden increase in the population before the elections.

Promises are made to Roma before those elections, promises seldom held …

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia Statistics

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Slovakia Statistics

The employment of Roma from excluded communities depends heavily on whether there is a crisis or growth, the IFP Chart of the Day shows. While only 16% of them were working in 2013, in the following six favourable years it was on average 24%. However, the pandemic interrupted this trend and the subsequent recovery has been slow.

News Western Europe United Kingdom

Education in the UK

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Education in the UK

A new study shows that Roma and travellers children in the Bradford area are severely disadvantaged and the lowest achievement rates.

Bad.

Italy News Western Europe

Forgotten Genocide

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Forgotten Genocide

A forgotten genocide, a page of history that has remained on the margins of collective consciousness, resurfaces thanks to Pino Petruzzelli’s theater of civic conscience. At the Teatro Eleonora Duse in Genoa, from Thursday, March 26th to Sunday, March 29th, “Zingari: l’Olocasto dimenticata” (Gypsies: The Forgotten Holocaust), written, directed, and performed by Pino Petruzzelli, will be performed in a minimalist production that entrusts words with the task of restoring a voice to those who have never had one.

Germany News Western Europe

Germany: Exhibition

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Germany: Exhibition

Nine life stories of Sinti and Roma are the focus of the exhibition “#maremanuschenge – Our People,” on display at the Elias Hospice. The exhibition is dedicated to survivors and those murdered, addressing persecution, resistance, and self-assertion. The exhibition can be viewed from Tuesday, April 7, to Sunday, April 27, at the Elias Hospice, Steiermarkstraße 12, in Ludwigshafen, in the Gartenstadt district. Admission is free.

Estonia News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Good Practices

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Good Practices

Partners of the LeadEx project, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund, participated in a study visit to Tallinn, Estonia, which took place from 9 to 11 March.

Project participants at a discussion. Slovenian representatives presented the Roma Assistant project as an example of good practice, which is being implemented at the Ministry of Education together with the Centre for School and Extracurricular Activities.

Whether this program is good practice or successful remains to be tested.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Fire

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Fire

Ondrej Balog shows only ruins of what remained of his home after last week’s fire. Ttwo small children died in the flames. “I built it for my children, for my grandchildren, so that we could all be together, so that we could be happy. If at least there was water, something could be saved,” says the victims’ grandfather Ondrej Balog with difficulty.

Although water is brought to the settlement, the official connection to the houses is complicated by illegal construction and the debts of non-payers. Most locals are therefore dependent on the only drinking water dispenser, which operates on a credit system. When a fire breaks out, residents without access to hydrants are practically helpless.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

The Roma rapper Hard Rico

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The Roma rapper Hard Rico

The Regional Court in Ostrava heard a case involving a group of four men and one woman, allegedly led by 23-year-old Enrico Pešta, known as the Roma rapper Hard Rico. The members of the group face five to seven years in prison for robbery and extortion. Hard Rico pleaded guilty in the courtroom, the prosecutor is asking for six years in prison for him. The verdict will be handed down in April.

Bad.

Bosnia News Eastern Europe

Roma in Bosnia

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Roma in Bosnia

Three decades after the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Roma still remain outside the institutional memory, justice and reparations system, although, according to new findings, they were exposed to all forms of war crimes, from murders to expulsions and displacement, it was emphasized at the conference on the suffering of Roma in the period 1992-1995.

The conference was held in the building of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina under the title “Through Truth to Justice: Thirty Years of Silence on the Suffering of Roma in the Period 1992-1995”, within the project “Improving Roma Participation in Transitional Justice in BiH”, funded by the Government of the United Kingdom.

Germany News Western Europe

Germany: Judgement

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Germany: Judgement

A blogger with around 52,000 followers posted on Twitter (now X) accusing a “large portion of the Sinti and Roma” of excluding themselves “from civilized society.” She listed accusations including welfare fraud, truancy, theft, littering, and “rental nomadism.”

The Higher Regional Court of Jena clarified that not every discriminatory statement violates human dignity. Describing Sinti and Roma as “rotating Europeans with a property-ownership disability” is grossly tasteless and defamatory—but not incitement to hatred.

France News Western Europe

French Chronicle …

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French Chronicle …

Quite a few articles about two Romanian Roma families who were condemned for having forced their children to beg. Other than that, in Nantes, Roma are voting to try to influence their fate in that city. Finally, in central France, two Serbian and two Romanian Roma were condemned for a series of burglaries.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Firefighters and Roma

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Firefighters and Roma

Apparently, four responding firefighters and equipment were attacked by residents of the Lipany settlement in Slovakia, who started throwing stones at the officers.

Circumstances and reasons are not mentioned.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Education in Slovakia

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Education in Slovakia

According to educator and education expert Juraj Hipš, Slovak education system has long struggled with segregation, which has not only a racial but also a social dimension. He pointed out that it is not just schools where Roma children are concentrated, but also schools where children from socially disadvantaged families, from hostels or from generational poverty are concentrated. “We have a huge problem with segregation in Slovakia.” He recalled that according to data from the Ministry of Education, there are almost 500 schools in Slovakia that are segregated or at risk of segregation.

Lithuania News Eastern Europe

Lithuania and the Z and N Words

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Lithuania and the Z and N Words

Minister of Culture Vaida Aleknavičienė says she disagrees with the statements of Audrius Valotka, head of the State Language Inspectorate, about “gypsies” and “negroes”, and invites him for a conversation.

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