The largest Rroma festival in Slovakia, Gypsy Fest went to the street in Bratislava.
13 members of the Czech Philharmonic will play together with Rroma children in Slovakia as part of the actions from Ida Kelarova, a Rromani singer who is engaged in helping children and Rroma integration.
A delegation of British police officers has been visiting the Rroma settlement of Jarovnice in Eastern Slovakia to understand the issues faced by Rroma in Slovakia and the ones that they face when migrating to other countries.
The city of Usti nad Labem, which is already known for issues with Rroma and general racism (they once built a wall around a Rroma settlement), has called for the army to deal with the problem of Rroma, be they locals or migrants, often from neighbouring Slovakia.
Are they totally out of their mind? The army is not there to deal with migrants, nor to improve security, this is the affair of the police and of the law.
While we certainly greet the fact that the council of Europe wants to advance its Human Rights Goals as well as the statements of its commissioner for Human Rights, Nils Muižnieks, the journalists should have taken care of his formulation in the title… The story is somewhat different if you are disabled or if you are Rrom in Slovakia.
Two Roma from Slovakia are in court, being accused of having trafficked women from Slovakia for weddings to migrants from non EU countries, mostly to Asians. The scheme flew off after one of the women was raped by a Pakistani man to whom she had been “sold”. While it seems that not all the defendant are Rroma, they were “assisted” in recruiting the women by a Rroma family.
This, once again has nothing to do with Rroma and all to do with poverty and crime…
An article on one of the largest “Osada” – Rroma ghetto – in Slovakia in the town of Moldava nad Bodvou. There are now rumours that it will be removed. Living situations in those osadas are dreadful, akin to favellas if not much worse. A worthy read.
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 .
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.
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!
The Slovak police is training their Czech counterparts in dealing with the Rroma minority. Looking back at the latest scandals in Slovakia where police brutality against Rroma is common and widespread, one can ask whether this is really a good idea.
The Slovakian supreme court has confirmed the condemnation of a Rroma leader, Štefan Faton, for having organised vote buying for the European Parliaments’ election. He has been condemned to 8 months of jail.
Three years ago, a landmark judgement found that Slovakia was discriminating Rroma children with the practice of having segregated schools. A report from Amnesty International reveals now that the situation has far from improved. This is due to the introduction of so-called “container schools” are installed in predominantly Rroma settlement, and are attended exclusively by Rroma children, the non Rroma population preferring to send their children to other schools. This is no longer segregation, this is total isolation …
Černušáková, Barbora. Slovakia’s ‘container schools’ worsen segregation of Roma children from society. In: Amnesty International Blog. 13.03.2015. https://www.amnesty.org/en/articles/blogs/2015/03/slovakia-segretation-of-roma-schoolchildren-worsens/
The BBC published a long reportage about the vanishing Gypsy “Cigan” Music in Budapest. This music, while played by Rroma musicians on some of the typical Rroma instruments such as the Cymbalom, has little in effect to do with Rroma music. It is and was a collection of Hungarian Schlagers, a few Hungarian folk songs and the odd typically Rroma song, these later ones can still be heard across the borders in Slovakia, still sung in Rromanes, and in Romania, especially in Transylvania.
There were and are still some great dynasties such as the Lakatos who perpetuate the style, but, in a time where recorded music is ubiquitous, the Rroma orchestras of Budapest are a vanishing breed, only kept in a few touristy restaurants. The past is gone, but music still stays, in new forms as for example with the munch more modern Roma Varadi Café!
Slovak police, who filmed their abuse of Rroma children in that country were acquitted of all charges, as their own videos taken from their own mobile phones was deemed to be illegally acquired evidence.
That the crime took place is not in doubt with the court, only the guilt of the police officers has not been “proven”. Crimes without culprits, especially when the police is involved is not uncommon. Unfortunately.
– Slovakia: Scandalous verdict acquits police of torturing Romani children. In: Romea.cz. 28.02.2015. http://www.romea.cz/…/slovakia-scandalous-verdict-acquits-p…
Koza – the goat – is a Slovak docu-movie on the life of a young Rroma boxer whose career peaked at the Olympic game but has since gone wrong. He lives in poverty with his girlfriend and daughter in a run down estate. The film related his life, but does not touch the subject of Rroma in Slovakia, a touchy subject.
– Simon, Alissa. Berlin Film Review: ‘Koza’. In: Variety. 11.02.2015.http://variety.com/…/re…/berlin-film-review-koza-1201434408/
The “Förderverein Roma” organises a march on January 27th in Frankfurt to mark the 79th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz Birkenau (Frankfurter Neue Presse). In that camp, with the special Rroma camp in Birkenau, countless Rroma from several countries were killed. The official number is fairly low, as is the case with Jews, as people that were gassed straight away were not registered. However, many Rroma from Czechoslovakia, Austria, Germany and other countries were murdered there.
The Bishop Conference of Germany, for that same commemoration of the liberation liberation of the camp, issued a lengthy statement acknowledging the murder of minorities and other in Auschwitz and appealing for tolerance and help towards others.
Bauer (2014) reports on the visit in Slovakia of a German delegation of politicians and church leaders of Schwäbisch Hall. The delegation wanted to get an idea of the Rroma situation in their home country, Rroma who who sometimes beg on the roads of Hall. While the representatives from politics and the church were able to reduce prejudices about organised begging gangs, the one-sided focus on marginalised Rroma gives the impression of a culture of poverty among the minority: “For the Roma from the 835-strong resort [Kaloša] 300 kilometres east of Bratislava, begging in Hall is a business model that enables their families to survive an allows them to build a simple house after a few years. “The fear of some citizens of Hall, that the beggars belong to organised criminal gangs is completely unfounded”, says Bettina Wilhelm, Halls first female mayor. She was part of the delegation to Kaloša, the place of origin of most of beggars in Hall. […] Since the fall of communism 25 years ago, many Roma have no work, they live on welfare and child support. In return, they must work a certain number of hours per month in charity. Also because of this, they return after 14 days in Hall to Slovakia. Neither to craftsmanship nor to agriculture, they bear reference. Since the collective farms were closed, the land lies fallow. Not even for their own use do they grow vegetables.” In Slovakia, according to assessments of the Rroma Foundation, there are an estimated 450,000 to 550,000 Rroma. Not all of them are losers of the 1989 turnaround, as this article suggests. Rroma belong to all strata of society, many of them are well integrated.
Guggisberg (2014) reports on criminal Rroma clans that allegedly force children into crime. Parents surrender their children to an omnipotent clan chief – to whom they are indebted – for begging and theft and some even end up in prostitution. Guggisberg uncritically reproduces the perspective of the “Wiener Drehscheibe”, a social service for begging and stealing children who have been arrested by the police. Guggisberg does not question that the social educator Norbert Ceipek – the head of the institution – who identifies each begging or stealing child as a victim of human trafficking, could himself be subject to prejudices and be providing misinformation on Rroma: “Ceipek opens another photo file. It shows a Roma village in Romania, which he recently visited. He tells of houses, cobbled together from planks and plastic sheeting, and dirt roads full of garbage. In the middle is a magnificent villa. “It belongs to the clan chief. He rules the villages as a state within a state”, says Ceipek […]. Many of the children dealt with in Vienna belong to the Roma. […] “The phenomenon of Eastern European gangs of beggars is not new. But since a couple of months, it taken new proportions”, says Ceipek. Very active are the Bosnian gangs, he states. Every few weeks, they would bring the children to different European cities, according to a rotating system. The social worker explains that his aim was to provide a perspective to the children, a little education. They might get on better path.”” Alexander Ott, head of the Foreign Police Bern, who has already been quoted repeatedly in articles about criminal Rroma gangs and trafficking of children, has his say. He reproduces the usual prejudices about hierarchical Rroma clans with a clan chief who leads children into crime: “The network of child traffickers reaches from Eastern Europe to Switzerland. “The victims are recruited in Romania, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Czech Republic and Slovakia. Often they come from large Roma families, are purchased or borrowed”, says Ott. One sends the boys to steal, urges them into prostitution, or forces them to beg. The instigators know well that the Swiss justice system cannot prosecute the perpetrators because of their young age. Adolescent burglars are booming in the autumn and winter months. Ott emphasises that they have to deal with highly professional, specialised and hierarchically-run clans, who practice their craft since generations.” Rroma are not more criminal than other ethnic groups. They are not hierarchically organised, as is often claimed, but structured largely egalitarian. So-called “Rroma kings” are self-elected and have purely representative character. Guggisberg and experts’ claim that behind begging children there is inevitably trafficking and organized crime, is wrong.
The characteristics of transnational operating trafficker networks, as presented here, are questioned by social science research. Their existence itself is not denied, something that cannot be in the interest of combating injustice. But their manifestation, their number, their omnipotence and the motivations attributed to them have to be questioned. These are often tainted by ideological fallacies, brought into connection or even equated with ethnic groups such as Rroma. Furthermore, the equation of child migration and trafficking has to be set into context. The stereotype of Rroma as child traffickers dates back to their arrival in Western Europe, and is in part based on the racist notion that Rroma did actively recruit children for criminal gangs. Regarding the topic of child migration, social science studies convey a more complex notion on the subject and point out that crimes such as incitement to beg and steal or alleged child trafficking are often permeated by various morals in the analysis and assessment by authorities, who don’t appropriately consider the perspective and motivations of migrating children and their relatives, and instead force on them their own ideas and definitions on organised begging, criminal networks or child trafficking. Structural differences of the societies involved and resulting reasons for a migration are given too little consideration. In reality, behind begging children there are often simply impoverished families, in which the children contribute to the family income and who therefore do not correspond to bourgeois notions of a normal family and childhood. De facto child trafficking is rare according to the sociological studies. Furthermore, the incomes from begging are very modest, which makes them unattractive for organised crime. Guggisberg, who states that 200’000 children are recruited annually by the trafficking mafia, contradicts this.
At the end of the article, Guggisberg quotes another expert opinion by Norbert Ceipek, the director of the “Wiener Drehschreibe”: At 15, many of them would get married and have children themselves, so that the cycle of crime continues. Likewise, Guggisberg reproduces this racist prejudice uncritically. The majority of Rroma, who live integrated, go to work and send their children to school, remain unmentioned (compare Cree/Clapton/Smith 2012, O’Connell Davidson 2011, Oude Breuil 2008, Tabin et al 2012).
The Slovak Spectator (2014) reports on the publication of a new study by the Slovak Institute for Economic and Social Studies (INESS). The study comes to the conclusion that Rroma, contrary to widespread stereotypes and myths arguing that the minority receives excessive social funds, are not treated differently by the state. The study also refutes established ideas about the high number of children among Rroma. The analysis came to the conclusion that 90% of the families who receive child benefits, have one or two children: “NOT even 2.2 percent of total public spending goes to Roma citizens even though they are often depicted as those who abuse the social welfare system in Slovakia. This is the finding from an analysis conducted by the Institute for Economic and Social Studies (INESS) released on October 22. The think-tank looked into numbers provided by the Central Office of Labour, Social Affairs and Family (ÚPSVaR), social insurer Sociálna Poisťovňa and the Atlas of Roma Communities and concluded that the costs of welfare paid in districts with a two-thirds Roma population makes up 2.2 percent of public spending, which is €578 million. “Even though Roma are proportionally higher recipients of public transfers these don’t amount to such a proportion of public finances as is discussed in inns or at the family table,” INESS analyst Ján Dinga, one of the study’s authors, told The Slovak Spectator.” Jarmila Lajčáková from the Research Centre for Ethnicity and Culture also pointed out that the misinformation and prejudice about the alleged preferential treatment of the Rroma in the social system complicates the integration of the minority, because they are confronted with these prejudices when trying to access the education system and the labour market. In Slovakia, according to assessments of the Rroma Foundation, there are an estimated 450,000 to 550,000 Rroma. Many of them belong to the middle class, have educations and their own apartments. They are almost constantly hidden in the public debate over the minority.
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