Category Archives: Ukraine

Ungarn News Osteuropa Ukraine

Ukrainian Refugees in Hungary

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Roma from Ukraine fled to Hungary because of the war, but not because of poverty. Rozina is 38 years old Romni and is one of several thousand refugees from Ukraine who fled to Hungary after the Russian invasion in February 2022.

She sits at a table and practices writing her name at a school in the eighth district of the Hungarian capital. She has freckles on her face, a bright smile, and struggles with the letter “k” when writing the surname Farkaš. The classes are run by Taleta, a non-governmental organization founded by two Hungarian women, Silvija Moldovan (Szilvia) and Agnes Pletser, immediately after the war began, with the aim of helping to educate young Roma refugees from the western Ukrainian Transcarpathian region.

News Osteuropa Polen Ukraine

Poland and Roma Refugees

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Residents of the small city of Krasnystaw, Southeast of Lublin and close to the Ukrainian border, are complaining about Roma refugees who, according to them, are making the city unsafe. Upon closer reading, this boils down to petty theft of food, and small incidents.

The thefts indicate that they probably do not have enough money to survive otherwise, as Poland does not really provide much help to refugees.

News Osteuropa Ukraine

Ukraine Roma Strategy

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The Roma Women’s Foundation “Chirikli” initiated a discussion of the Action Plan for the Implementation of the Strategy for Facilitating the Realization of the Rights and Opportunities of Persons Belonging to the Roma National Minority in Ukrainian Society for 2024-2025.

The discussion took place online on May 12, 2023. It was attended by Roma mediators (Valentyna Zolotarenko, Zhuzhuna Duduchava, Maksym Jum, Bublyk Marina, Rada Kalandia) and representatives of 15 Roma organizations from Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk, Zakarpattia, Chernihiv, Kyiv, Donetsk, Kirovohrad regions (Yulian Kondur, Vasyl Bilous, Vira Drangoy, Eleonora Kulchar, Myroslav Horvat, Kostyantyn Musenko, Oleksiy Padchenko, Mykhailo Bilyavskyi), as well as the representative of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine Zemfira Kondur.

https://www.facebook.com/Chiricli/photos/a.1337218203040379/6029698317125654/

News Osteuropa News Schweiz Ukraine

Roma Refugees from the Ukraine

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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.

News Osteuropa Ukraine

Ivan Korniyovych Bilashchenko

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On May 6th, 2023, Ivan Korniyovych Bilashchenko passed away at the age of 97. He was born in the village of Dmytrivka, Zolotoni district, Cherkasy region.

He was a lieutenant colonel and a veteran of the Second World War. He survived the famine when he was 7. When the Second World War began, he was 14 years old, and was sent to a concentration camp. He escaped, he was caught again and sent to forced labour – to build a railway in the Zolotonsky District.

In 1943, when he was already 17 years old, Zolotonishchyna was liberated by the Red Army, and Ivan Korniyovich joined it. He was sent to the front in Vitebsk, where he began his military service, and finished the War in the Baltics States as a commander of a platoon.

May he rest in peace!

News Osteuropa Polen Ukraine

The Polish Catholic Church and Roma

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Right after the congress of the International Catholic Committee for Roma in Prague on April 24, Fr. Stanisław Opocki – the national Roma chaplain and a member of the Polish Episcopate Commission for Migrants – went to Lviv to support the emerging Roma pastoral care there. Using Polish experience in this area, he assured that he would support the creation of similar structures and work on the educational needs of the Roma in Ukraine.

Apparently, it is never too late for the church.

News Osteuropa Ukraine

Ukraine, Youth, and Roma

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At least 35% of young Ukrainian men and women polled by sociologists have prejudices against Roma, and another 28% towards LGBT fellow citizens. These comes out of a study “The impact of war on youth in Ukraine”, which was conducted by the Cedos analytical centre and the Info Sapiens research agency.

Well, even though these number are high, they are lower than a while back.

Europe News Osteuropa Ukraine

Roma Refugees from the Ukraine

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An editorial on the discrimination faced by Roma refugees form the Ukraine in Western Europe.

While some of the statements on the Roma situation in Ukraine are not fully correct, the fact is that many Roma faced discrimination while fleeing.

Bulgarien News Osteuropa Ukraine

Ukrainian Roma Refugees

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According to this article in the Bulgarian press, about half of the Roma in the Ukraine are currently refugees and about a quarter of them have a relative fighting on the front. This statement was made by Ned’s Korunovska, of the European Institute for Art and Culture.

These numbers seem somewhat stretched. We doubt that many of the Roma from Transcarpathian Ukraine and Bessarabia fled. Some did, we can testify to this. This will need to be followed up.

News Osteuropa Ukraine

Ukraine and April 8th

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A round table was held in Ukraine’s Commissioner’s Secretariat on the occasion of the International Roma Day. The discussion was attended by the management and representatives of the Office of the Ombudsman, Ukrainian state institutions, international and public organizations.

During the introductory speech, Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets noted that the issue of the status of national communities is one of the conditions for Ukraine’s accession to the EU, therefore this issue is extremely important for Ukraine as a whole and for the work of the Ombudsman’s Office. In particular, the protection of the rights of the Roma minority, which is one of the most vulnerable national communities.

News Osteuropa Polen Ukraine

The Church and Refugees in the Ukraine

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Bishop of Kielce Jan Piotrowski in the company of the Latin Metropolitan of Lviv, Archbishop Mieczysław Mokrzycki visited the parish of St. John Paul II in Lviv and the nearly hundred refugees who live there.

Despite the language barrier, Bishop Piotrowski also talked with Roma children studying in the parish school “Alav” (meaning “word”) organized for them, which, together with the parish priest, Fr. Grzegorz Draus, they sang their own original parish anthem and in Polish “Zielony Mosteczek”. It was a testimony to the success of students who speak Russian and Ukrainian, as well as Hungarian or Romani, on a daily basis.

News Osteuropa Ukraine

Roma in Ukraine and Social Services

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Roma families in Kryvyi Rih (Ukraine) were visited by Juvenile Inspectors, Specialists of the Children’s Service of the Executive Committee of Dovhyntsivka District Council in the city, and teachers of Kryvorizka Gymnasium No. 84 to “assess their living conditions and education status.

According to the article, “preventive” discussions were held with the parents regarding “responsible parenting” and the need for children to get an education. It furthers with “The emphasis is on preventing the use of children for begging and involving them in illegal activities.”

This says a lot about what people think of Roma there.

News Osteuropa Ukraine

Ukraine and Roma in the War

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Another article on Uzhhorod, in Transcarpathian Ukraine, showing how the war is influencing the attitudes towards Roma in the country.

News Osteuropa Ukraine

Repression during the War

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A new book was recently published on the World War Two history of the Rivne region in the Ukraine. It presents the repression by the Soviet NKVD (the FSB and KGB) predecessor against Roma who had fled from Poland. In particular, the Lovara family Kwek (or Kvivk).

They were accused to be spies for the German.

News Osteuropa Ukraine

Roma IDPs in the Ukraine

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A reportage of Roma from the Donetsk region who were displaced by the war and who settled in Vinnytsia region (Central Ukraine).  They bought houses and were allowed to use some others in the village of Potoky. All in all 68 Roma moved there.

News Osteuropa Ukraine

Ukrainian Activists

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Portraits and discussions with Ukrainian activists, among which Ruslana Polyanska, a Romni who studied at the Central European University. They speak also about sterotypes.

Deutschland News Westeuropa Ukraine

Germany and Ukrainian Refugees

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A rochade among refugees in Germany. A group of Ukrainian refugees was moved away from their current home to make space for Hungarian speaking Roma refugees from Transcarpathian Ukraine who were in a temporary camp. The original refugees will be put in better homes, apparently, rather than in that particular large home they were in.

A bit of a mess, and the Germans admit their communication was not optimal.

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