Category Archives: News Eastern Europe

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgaria Kyustendil’s mayor calls a referendum – without Rroma

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Bulgaria Kyustendil’s mayor calls a referendum – without Rroma

The mayor of Bulgaria’s Kyustendil is calling a referendum to ask whether he should run for a third term. This referendum explicitly excludes Rroma from taking part, officially as there have been too many instances of vote buying from Rroma.

Shame !

News Eastern Europe

Film on a Rrom who wants to become a teacher

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Film on a Rrom who wants to become a teacher

An Al-Jazeera film shows the quest of a 30 years old Rrom from a ghetto who, after a beating by the police, decides to finish high school and to become a teacher. While the story is definitively worthwhile and the man’s determination is to be really admired, the film and the article on it serves all the commonly held stereotypes. Broken families, criminality, drugs, etc. A more differentiated view is seldom presented in the press.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Rroma in Bulgaria’s Garmen are destroying illegal houses

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Rroma in Bulgaria’s Garmen are destroying illegal houses

Rroma from the Bulgarian village of Garmen, where ethnic tensions flared recently and resulted in de-facto battles between Rroma and general population, have started destroying illegal constructions in their part of the village. It is widely reported that the push by the village’s authorities to push for regularisation of the buildings was at the source of the tensions. Rroma can now regularise the situation by buying the communal land on which their houses sit. Unfortunately, it seems that event the low price is too high for most.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgarian professor on the Rroma situation

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Bulgarian professor on the Rroma situation

An interview of Professor Mihail Konstantinov, mathematician and expert of elections, gives a view of the current situation and thinking of the general population on Rroma in Bulgaria. The Garmen events and their cause is put into a context of lack of education, work, and total lack of propects.

 

Hungary News Eastern Europe

Propaganda on Work in Hungary

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Propaganda on Work in Hungary

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.

Hungary News Eastern Europe

Die Zeit: Time that the EU does something against the Orban Regime

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Die Zeit: Time that the EU does something against the Orban Regime

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!

Hungary News Eastern Europe

Közmunka: A form of slavery?

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Közmunka: A form of slavery?

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.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czech Social Inclusion Agency: For Rroma but without Rroma

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Czech Social Inclusion Agency: For Rroma but without Rroma

A controversy has started about the Czech government agency on social inclusion meant to favour the Rroma inclusion, but which has no Rroma members. Rroma activists such as Karel Holomek and Gyulla Banga and many others are protesting against this and have led a dozen Rroma to issue a declaration citing their ambition to become the representative of the Rroma community.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgaria: Ethnic unrest in Garmen

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Bulgaria: Ethnic unrest in Garmen

In Garmen, a village in Bulgaria, ethnic tensions have flared. Following fight between Rroma teenagers and ethnic Bulgarians, there have been appeals to peace by the Rroma population and appeals for an anti Rroma manifestation on June 2nd. A probable background of the fight may be the “illegal” nature of the Rroma settlement, i.e. the fact that many buildings were built without the necessary authorisations and the non-Rroma citizen protesting against theft and criminality in the village. Meanwhile, even the deputy mayor of the village has been apparently beaten up by Rroma teenagers, showing that the tensions are far from ebbing.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

European Commission against Slovakia

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European Commission against Slovakia

The European Commission (EC) has started a legal action against Slovakia on the basis of the ongoing discrimination against Rroma children in that country. The EC says that a unusually high number of Rroma are placed in schools for mentally disabled children, a practice that is ongoing since the 1950’s in that country. Well Done for the EC, Shame on Slovakia. Especially since the government states that this high number is due to Rroma incest .

Hungary News Eastern Europe

Hungarian Justice Minister had to apologise

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Hungarian Justice Minister had to apologise

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.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czech Police trains Rroma experts

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Forty Czech police officers, 4 of them Rroma, have been selected as Rroma experts to deal with Rroma in ghettoes. Let’s see what this brings, the Czech police has a track record that is far from clean when dealing with Rroma.

News Americas News Eastern Europe News Western Europe

Hungarian Rroma refugees in Canada granted a reprieve

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Hungarian Rroma refugees in Canada granted a reprieve

Following the condemnation of a Canadian lawyer for having mishandled the cases of Rroma refugees, a couple of Hungarian Rroma are getting a second chance and the court is now re-considering the refugee status.

News Americas News Eastern Europe

Rroma offer guided tours of Budapest 8th District

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Rroma offer guided tours of Budapest 8th District

Budapest’s 8th district seldom features in guidebooks. While the buildings were once grand and beautiful, they are now dilapidated and gritty. The neighbourhood is mostly Rroma, with a high level of unemployment, and is reputed for crime and prostitution.

Rroma are now offering guided tours through the neighbourhood to show the other facets of this part of town, including sights such as the Jewish cemetery, but also much more simply, the fairly normal if often poor normality of this part of town.

Belgium News Eastern Europe News Western Europe Slovakia

Homeless Slovak Rroma in Brussels

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Homeless Slovak Rroma in Brussels

The story of the few homeless Rroma in Brussels (we reported on it), is drawing lots of attention in the Belgian press and now also in the Slovak one. Even the European Affairs Minister Miroslav Lajčák stepped into the fray and stated that “We provide assistance to all of our citizens that approach us with a request for help, but this wasn’t the case in this instance.”

Lots is made of a few isolated cases, and the Rroma who migrated and integrated are barely mentioned. Again, only stereotyped views of the Rroma are pushed by the press.

Hungary News Eastern Europe

Jobbik mayor accused of forcing Rroma out

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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.

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