The canton Basel Land is opening a new temporary camping site.
A commentary in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung saying that local Yenishe and Sinti are literally suffering from the travelling foreign Roma who do not respect local rules.
One has to stress here that Switzerland is the only place where camping sites for travellers are de-facto segregated.
The country has an issue with actually providing camping sites to travellers. Not only are there not enough, but they also distinguish between “local” Travellers, the Jenische and Sinti and Manouche and “foreign” ones, i.e. the Roma.
Now one canton is setting up a working group on the topic. See you again in five years …
A Roma camp is set up in Geneva in the Geisendorf park, near the school buildings. On the eve of the start of the school year, the municipal police announce measures.
Another conflict between Swiss towns and Roma travellers. This time in Yverdon. The town has blocked access to a camping site with concrete blocks, preventing the Roma who are there from leaving with their caravans.
There are not enough sites in Switzerland, and the highest court in the land is prompting the cantons to remedy this issue. Nothing is of course done.
Roma were camping next to the neighbourhood centre. The city deemed them “intrusive” and in order to discourage them from being there, installed ping-pong tables.
There could have been more fitting measures …
The extreme right weekly “Die Weltwoche” puts up a title stating “Fake Ukrainians flock to Switzerland: Roma with purchased passports demand protection status. A community in Bern raises the alarm. She feels let down by the State Secretariat for Migration”.
Well, there are not that many Roma refugees from the Ukraine here. As usual, when this paper “reports” on Roma, they are all thieves, profiteers, and organised criminal beggars.
A first in Switzerland: an article highlighting the longstanding hostility and persecution of Roma in Switzerland. What is worse, it continues. The country recognised Yenische, Sinti and Manouches but not Roma as a national minority.
An “article” about Roma refugees from the Ukraine in Switzerland, claiming they cash in the money and then leave again and come back after a while. The accusations are anonymous (diverse sources say …) or attributed to an Ukrainian.
When you know that the daily stipend of an adult refugee is less than 20 CHF per day and half that for children, this makes little financial sense but again, it portrays Roma as profiteers and liars.
Bad.
Yeniche, Sinti and Roma are entitled to camping sites, which are rare in the Lake Zurich region. The site in Meilen is now to be renovated and expanded. Specifically, ten parking spaces are to be created. Ten is not much when one knows that there are often up to 50 caravans underway.
The Swiss government decided to cut the subsidies for Jenische and Sinti in Switzerland. They were already not generous.
The Swiss are not exactly generous to Travellers. And they do not even recognise Roma (but they do recognise Sinti and manouches) besides the Jenishe as a national minority. Now they are cutting the meagre amount they spend.
Bad.
There are not enough camping sites for travellers in Switzerland. This is definitively not new. The Council of Europe is now telling Switzerland it must act.
Let’s see, as the country is very good at doing nothing on this topic.
A debate on Swiss TV on whether the French model of “Transition Villages” is the correct one.
Marc Vuilleumier, a MP in the parliament of the canton of Vaud wants a new approach towards Roma in the towns of the canton. He asked the government to develop a policy of inclusion rather than discrimination and repression, especially for families with children. The elected representative proposed to draw inspiration from the experience of a “transition village” in Montpellier (F).
An article and video on Roma refugees from the Ukraine. According to the article, there could be as many as 100’000 of them. This number is probably too high an estimate. The article focuses on Roma from Transcarpathian Ukraine in the Czech Republic, a problematic issue.
The Swiss Federal Council voted yesterday to erect a Holocaust memorial in the city of Bern in a yet to be determined central location. They allocated a 2.5 Mio CHF credit to the Memorial.
Racial discrimination has increased in Switzerland. One of the statement made is that this increase is also due to the increased willingness to report those cases.
Maybe …
At long last, a new addition to the Swiss school curriculum: Jenische, Sinti and Roma.
The country does not have enough camping sites for travellers. So what do they do, instead of building more, they produce a manual on how to deal with them…
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