According to the European commission, EU member countries have made some progress on Rroma integration in the last year. We really do wonder where… Certainly not in Bulgaria, in Hungary, in Romania, all countries where the pendulum is swinging the other way around. And Western Europe is not much better, see France, England etc.
Hungary has been chided by the Council of Europe due to the common and open racism against the Rroma minority of Hungary. According to the report, racism is not restricted to the extreme right party Jobbik, but is commonplace in the country and in the press.
It is really bad.
According to Hungary today, more and more Rroma have now a job in Hungary. The spokesman of human resource ministry stated that “the rate of Roma living in households categorised as “low work intensity” dropped from 48% in 2009 to 26% by 2014”
Well, never believe in statistics. This at best the result of forcing people into the so-called “Közmunka” – communal work, which is not really paid at all and which certainly doesn’t allow people a decent living. True unemployment in the countryside is unfortunately almost close to affecting all, be they Rroma or Hungarians.
Die Zeit asks why the EU and the European Commission tolerate that Hungary openly discriminates against its Rroma minority, tolerates a mayor who is a little dictator, and openly flouts all European principles.
Well said!
A scary video of a small town in North-Eastern Hungary. A mayor behaves like a dictator on the Rroma minority. Scary, and, as the Zeit says, why is this being tolerated?
Közmunka, a form of de-facto forced labour is currently being widely used in Hungary to replace public services. Officially, this is to be a community work program meant to get people off social help, but it has turned into a pool of cheap workers, even on some road projects funded by the EU… What is being paid is far below what one needs to survive.
A series of photographs of life inside two Rroma settlements in Hungary.
Following his remarks on refugees and Rroma, the Hungarian Justice Minister, László Trócsányi had to apologise. Well, kind of, as he denies his statements could be deemed racist, and that he just wanted to highlight the priority for Rroma inclusion.
The far-right Jobbik mayor of Ózd, in north-east Hungary is currently being accused of forcing poor Rroma resident out of their homes. He did change the housing regulations making it easier to evict “undesirable”, read Rroma, tenants.
Zoltan Balogh, the Hungarian Human Resource Minister, gave a speech on the Rroma Resistance Day (the day commemorating the uprising of Rroma in Auschwitz on May 16, 1944), and had to apologise for his remarks last August where he actually stated that no Rroma had been deported from Hungary – a lie. At least now it is somewhat official.
Holocaust in Hungary is still not widely acknowledged, especially the fact that most Jews in the countryside were deported as early as 1941 to extermination camps, and this on Hungarian initiative. Rroma were also constantly deported to Auschwitz and other camps.
An interesting article on the various ways to fight school segregation in the case of Rroma in Europe. School segregation is too often still the norm, especially in Hungary, Slovak and the Czech republic, as well as in Romania.
László Trócsányi, Hungarian Minister of Justice lashed out at the EU proposed quota system for taking refugees, added that they had already many from the Balkan, notably from Kosovo, and anyhow, cannot take more, as they have already to integrate 800’000 Rroma in Hungary.
While we greet the “official” recognition of the 800 thousands Rroma in Hungary (officially, there are much less than that – the 800 thousand is an estimate from NGOs), the statements are simply not acceptable from a minister in an EU country. First, not all Rroma are a problem, as is indeed suggested here, and second, one cannot use a minority as an excuse against refugees.
Austrian Airlines, Austrian airport officials, and the CIC (Citizenship, Immigration, and Canada) banned a Rroma researcher from Hungary to board a plane to Toronto where she was scheduled to do research on fellow Hungarian Rroma who migrated to Canada recently, this in spite of having a valid EU passport, 1’000 dollars, and a return ticket.
This seems to be a consequence of several airlines being fined by Canada following them transporting Rroma who later asked for asylum or for immigration to that country. In any case, there is a presumption of innocence, and the researcher’s rights were clearly flouted in a bout of racial profiling.
The current Indian Ambassador to Hungary, Malay Mishra is currently studying the Rroma communities in Hungary as part of a Ph.D. he is currently registered for at Corvinius University. He is looking at parallels and at what could be learned from India in terms of integrating disadvantaged minorities.
We cannot but agree with his statement that in spite of 1’200 NGOs active in Hungary for Rroma, there seem to be precious few recipients, especially in the country side.
A portrait and interview of a Hungarian Rromni activist who worked first at the European Roma Right Centre (ERRC) and who is now the special raporteur for Minority issues at the UN.
Well done!
The appellate court in Budapest upheld the first instance judgment against the perpetrators of the hate crimes against Rroma in Hungary. Three of the perpetrators are sentenced to life without parole, while another forth one to 13 years in Prison.
The European Commission criticised Slovakia for systematic discrimination of Rroma children in education. It started legal proceedings for breaches of EU anti-discrimination law, referring to discrimination against Roma children in education. After the Czech Republic where such a procedure was started in September 2014, this is the second country in Europe that is being targeted.
Segregation in schools has been common in both the Czech and Slovak republics, but also exists in Romania and in Hungary. The practice of sending Rroma children systematically to schools for mentally disabled people is unfortunately also part of this pattern.
We welcome these actions!
Amnesty International condemned the fact that the Czech Republic has failed to comply with a European court order to stop placing Roma children in schools for the mentally disabled regardless of the students’ capabilities. Placing Rroma in schools for mentally disabled people has a long tradition in the Czech and Slovak republics as well as in Hungary and Romania. This is simply no longer acceptable in the 21. Century.
Following a scathing report on lawyers who did not defend Rroma refugees from Hungary properly, the Ontario state has passed a slate of new measures requiring competency tests for lawyers. There were a number of cases that were lost due to the incompetency of lawyers, resulting in several expulsions back to Hungary.
The Hungarian supreme court allowed Rroma only religious schools in that country. The Hungarian minister for Education, Integration, and Human resources had been supporting the views from the schools who had lost a case in lower instances. The EU and the Chance for Childrne Foundations were clearly against it.
So are we… Segregation on any reason is not an answer. The answer is integration.
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