Category Archives: News Eastern Europe

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Commemoration

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Commemoration

On Saturday evening, Romani students during the BARUVAS meeting in Brno symbolically joined the memorial service for the victims of the tragic fire in the Romani settlement in Veľký Šariš, Slovakia. Each of the twenty-five participants lit a candle and together honored the memory of four small children and their great-grandmother who died in the night fire.

 

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czechia: Baby Box

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Czechia: Baby Box

Many articles about a a Roma baby boy who was put in a baby box in Jihlava late Sunday evening. He was named František. In the 15 years of the Jihlava baby box’s existence, this is the fourth child and the 273rd in total, said the founder of the boxes, Ludvík Hess.

The boy was put in a minute before 10 p.m. and was wrapped in a red-blue-and-white checkered blanket, otherwise he was naked, said Hess. According to him, Roma children in a baby box are a rarity.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: Attack

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Slovenia: Attack

Slovenske novice writes today that after Saturday’s Ceca concert, three young Roma attacked an innocent man from Brežice. Due to numerous punches and kicks, he has a broken nose, a broken finger on his left hand, and an injury to his shoulder…

Bad for all.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Veľký Šariš

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Veľký Šariš

In cooperation with the government’s plenipotentiary for Roma communities, Alexander Dašek the city administration is working on a housing solution for the people who lost their homes in the fire in the Roma settlement.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Lunik IX and Education

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Lunik IX and Education

Michaela Cingeľová, a unique teacher who decided to go to teach at the Ľudmila Podjavorinská Elementary School in Luník IX four years ago. This is one of the most notorious ghettos in Slovakia.

 In addition, she founded a project in her hometown that makes Roma children look forward to going to school on Saturdays.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Roma Partisan

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Roma Partisan

Czech Television reporter and presenter Richard Samko arrived at the Junior Radio Club. He talked to presenter Eva Sinkovičová about his work and the new Minor Theatre performance, in which he portrays a Roma hero, Josef Serenko. He fought in both world wars and he later became a partisan commander nicknamed Černý and worked in the Highlands.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Fire

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Slovakia: Fire

Many articles in the Slovak and in the Czech press about the fire in the Roma settlement of Veľkém Šariši which killed 4 children and a woman and destroyed several houses. Alexander Daško, the government’s plenipotentiary for Roma communities, went in the settlement in the Prešov region. He wants to go to Brussels and provide modular housing for the Roma in the settlements.

Up till now, he hasn’t done much to help and is heavily criticised.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Prague – International Roma Day

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Prague – International Roma Day

The International Roma Day celebrations will begin in Prague on April 4th, offering concerts, exhibitions, discussions and a gala evening. This year’s 11th year will be held in the spirit of the theme FUTUROMA, which focuses on the future of Roma culture in society. The celebrations are organized by the ARA ART organization and will culminate on April 8th with a gala evening.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czechia, the Web and Neo-Nazis

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Czechia, the Web and Neo-Nazis

The Brno Municipal Court today began hearing the case of Igor Mižák, who, according to the indictment, was supposed to have founded and managed the neo-Nazi website White Media. In the past, the website published hundreds to thousands of private documents and personal data, including e-mail correspondence between former prime ministers Bohuslav Sobotka and Vladimír Špidla. Among the victims are also activists fighting against racism and xenophobia, including several Roma. However, the court is not addressing the website’s hateful content due to the US position. Mižák defends himself by claiming that he only rented the website. If found guilty, he faces up to five years in prison.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Fire

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Slovakia: Fire

The fire in a Roma settlement in Veľký Šariš on March 19th claimed the lives of four young children and one adult woman and burnt 8 homes to the ground. It has severely affected not only the local Roma community, but also the general public. Roma activists, politicians and representatives of institutions are reacting to the tragedy. Roma leader Jozef Stojka called on Roma in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and throughout the European Union to light a candle in memory of the victims on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. According to him, the tragedy revealed a long-term crisis in the state’s approach to marginalized Roma communities.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe Ukraine

Czechia, Roma, and Ukrainians

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Czechia, Roma, and Ukrainians

An interview with the coordinator of a facility for children in unfavourable situation who explains that they now have Roma and Ukrainians amongst their client, and that they had to deal with prejudice towards Roma.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czechia: Neo-Nazi Threats

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Czechia: Neo-Nazi Threats

A video about physical violence against Roma has caused great concern in Písek. The author of the video, who is a teenager who has been identified, and about which the police cannot provide more information, claimed in it that about a hundred extremists would arrive in Písek on Monday, March 17, and would bring order to the city.

“It’s Písek on Monday. At seven in the evening. There were skinheads everywhere here and it was quiet. Now they’re not here and it’s a mess,” the video, which has already been removed from social media, said.

Some Roma did not want to be liked by the threats and wanted to organize their own rally via social media. Michal Mižigár from Písek, however, called for prudence. “Please be prudent, let’s not be scared by the provocateurs from Tiktok,” he said on the social network Facebook.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Displaced

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Slovakia: Displaced

The mayor of the municipality of Dolné Vestenice in Slovakia, Viliam Šuhajda, declared an emergency situation for the territory of the municipality, specifically in the Kopanice part, with effect from March 19, 2025 at 3:00 p.m. The reason for this decision is slope deformation, which poses a serious risk to residents and infrastructure in the area.

The issue: Below that slope lies a Roma settlement. And the municipality said they had no alternative place to resettle them…

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia, Roma, and Schools

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Slovenia, Roma, and Schools

Minister of Labour and Social Affairs Luka Mesec presented a package of measures to address Roma issues in Novo mesto. Among the measures, a new one will allow  to consider failure to attend primary school as child neglect. The minister said that this can have serious legal consequences. The proposal also envisages the mandatory inclusion of Roma children in kindergarten one year before entering school.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Deaf Roma

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Slovakia: Deaf Roma

A conference entitled We Create a Community of Deaf Roma Together: Deaf Roma as an Invisible Minority was dedicated to discussing the challenges faced by the deaf Roma community, as well as finding concrete solutions supporting inclusion. It will took place on Tuesday in a café on Svätopluková Street in Prešov. As the director of the civic association Svet ticha Tomáš Dunko it also highlighted the results of mapping deaf Roma living in socially excluded localities.

According to Dunko, who is deaf and sign language Roma, this is a relatively new topic that is little known in Slovakia. But it affects a large number of people who experience linguistic and social isolation without sufficient support from the state and society.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czechia, Roma, and the Genocide

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Czechia, Roma, and the Genocide

March 11, 1943, 642 Roma men, women and children were deported to Auschwitz Birkenau from the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. This was the beginning of the systematic extermination of Roma in that region.

For the majority of Czechoslovak society at the time, this remained on the fringes of interest. Although there were cases where local residents showed sympathy or tried to help, in general, there was little awareness of the fate of the Roma. And after the war, the tragedy of the Roma Holocaust was neglected for a long time. The participation of Czech gendarmes and camp commanders in the genocide of the Roma during World War II was denied for forty years under communism. The taboo was broken after the revolution by historian Ctibor Nečas and journalist Markus Pape, and courageous activists from among Roma also played their part. For example, Jan Hauer, Antonín Lagryn or Čeněk Růžička, all sons of Leti prisoners.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czechia: Neo-Nazi Threats

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Czechia: Neo-Nazi Threats

A young neo-Nazi openly threatens Roma with violence in a video on TikTok. He says that a group of extremists will arrive in Písek on Monday evening and want to attack Roma. The video quickly began to spread among Roma and raised concerns. The situation is already being handled by the Government Commissioner for Roma Affairs, Lucie Fuková, who is in contact with the police. In response to the threats, some Roma are calling for their own meeting in Písek.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Famous Photo

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Slovakia: Famous Photo

David Neff won the Czech Press Photo for his photo of the tragic floods in a Roma settlement in eastern Slovakia, but his main protagonist, Sister Atanázie Holubová, was not too thrilled with the photo. “I was a little angry with him. Why do you still have to take pictures of it?”

The flood occurred in Jarovnice on July 20th, 1998.

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