Amnesty International launched an appeal on the international Rroma day on April 8th, denouncing prejudices against Rroma that still prevail in Europe and give rise to violence and exclusion. They specifically cite the Czech Republic, France, and Greece in this appeal.
An important part of the fight against prejudices towards Rroma is learning about their history and previous persecutions, such as the Holocaust. This is key, for only when one deals with one’s past can one actually shape one’s future.
The article assess that there have not been sufficient efforts to change the perceptions towards Rroma in the general population and only when this occurs, can one hope for a better future.
Rroma in Rome’s outskirts are denouncing what they qualify as a savage attack against hem by the police which left a young girl injured after the police used pepper spray and guns against Rroma who had been displaced the night before due to fire in their immigrant reception centre the night before.
CBC News report that Rroma refugees in Canada, mostly from Hungary, have been facing massive bias and discrimination in their cases. The report making this claim, authored by Sean Rehaag, a law professor, is damning for the immigration authorities in Canada. He speaks of “luck”, of little hope at appeals, and at denials at the actual situation of Rroma, especially in Hungary.
Yet another photographer who “arrives” at Rroma through the bias of poor, abandoned, or bi-racial children. The list is alas long, and tends to portray Rroma through those themes, rather than as a minority. While the pictures are beautiful, the message is unfortunately the same: Poor, non integrable Rroma…
Belgium’s federal centre for equality of chances is organising meetings between the media and Rroma representatives to combat negative stereotypes in the press and to further a Rroma voice in the articles. They note that only two out 74 articles allowed Rroma to present their point of view.
About time…
Rroma camps still make the headlines in France. As if a small minority of 15 thousand Rroma was representative and was news. News is that they are being used, misused, and are becoming victims of French politics.
In Marseilles, a camp was closed; while in Antibes, the expulsion will have to wait a little; and in the North, around Roubaix, volunteers and Rroma are still mobilising to further integration and to prevent further expulsions; and in the South West of France, an expulsion of Bulgarian Rroma is reported while in Antibes, they are getting a short respite. Finally, In Nantes, a judge granted a permanent address to Rroma currently living in a camp, are-requisite to any integration in France.
The real pity is not the fate of these migrants, it is the fact that the French Press can’t seem to get over their short sighted stereotypes…
In Bavaria, the Catholic Church appointed a priest solely for the Sinti. It has to be said that the Catholic Church up till now has done very little for Rroma and was more on the oppressing side. This is one of the reasons why many Rroma in Western Europe have turned to evangelical churches. So, a bit late, in fact a few centuries late, but better than never!
France this week was in the midst of its local (departmental) elections which has seen a surge in support for the Front National of Marine Le Pen. The French press, never adverse at racial profiling, did go quite far this week. They spoke of evictions in Grimaud, close to St. Tropez; of a fire in a camp in Montpellier; of evictions in Bayonne; but even more so on criminality.
A report of organised criminality and begging in the region of Lille in the North of France, whereby a Bulgarian gangster ring would force people to beg in that city. Just across the border, some Rroma were arrested for stealing handbags in a fancy shop in Liège.
In brief, the standard picture of the migrant South Eastern European Rrom, who comes to beg, steal, or simply benefit from the social welfare is reinforced, this ahead of elections where an extreme right party is making huge inroads…
In October 2012, a Rromni, Paraskevi Kokkoni was savagely beaten by local men in a context of racism and of attacks by rightist extremists against Rroma in that town. Three men were subsequently condemned to 8 months of jail and to a further suspended sentence of three further years.
A petition signed by 82’000 people was handed over to the Greek minister of the interior on March 6th. This petition urges Greece to act decisively against hate crimes.
Jacques Debot, a French blogger reporting on Rroma Stories, wrote a post on photographs and Rroma. In there, he bemoans the fact that the pictures that are taken all show the same view of Rroma: Poverty, alienation, despair. He wishes that other sides of Rroma could and should be shown, very much in the sense of the Chilean photographer Navarro Vega, who took more differentiated pictures of the poorest under the Pinochet dictature.
While we wholeheartedly support this point of view, we feel one needs to go further: Photographers, and the press in general, have a moral responsibility. They show part of the reality, the visible tip of the iceberg. But they never show the invisible ones, the large majority of Rroma. And thus, they distort the perceptions of this minority.
A controversy in the UK followed a ruling finding a politician guilty of racism and discrimination against Rroma. A British Rrom and a Green candidate to the elections says no politician is different from another in this matter, and that newspapers tend to cover such comments in a way that portrays them defending the order and the community against Rroma.
Travellers and Rroma represent a community that is non-negligible and are voters. But only 10% of them voted in the last elections. This article offers an interesting analysis of the reasons why and the ways in which this is currently changing.
Meanwhile, a small number of Rroma in France continues to grab the headlines. In the north, in Roubaix, Rroma and NGOs are fighting against eviction, while in St. Ouen, near Paris, some Rroma will be relocated in an “insertion village” a project meant to integrate Rroma.
In both cases, the press continues to portray Rroma as poor migrants from South Eastern Europe, travellers (see the pictures), and as difficult to integrate. This generalisation, as we have always said is actually racists. This concerns a small minority of the Rroma population in France.
The city of Duisburg produced a study that clearly shows that extreme rightists parties started using the theme of Rroma and how this is based on daily racism, enabled by the media and politics. The broschure can be downloaded freely.
The red-green coalition from Baden Württemberg will deport asylum seekers from Serbia and Macedonia, many of then Rroma, on the anniversary of the deportation of Rroma in that Region. This anniversary celebrated on the 24th of March commemorates the first train filled with Rroma and Sinti that departed from Offenburg.
What a date to choose …
The Swedish police was caught a while back in 2013 running an illegal registry of Rroma that comprised over 4’700 individuals. Sweden’s Parliamentary Ombudsman (‘Justitieombudsmannen’) issued a sharp criticism of the police on that topic and requested that each of the registered person receive 5’000 Kronor ($ 768).
The Swiss television “Mise au Point” presented a reportage on the Rroma shantytowns outside of Lyon. Beside the obvious fact that they forget to say that this is a very small minority of migrants, less than 15’000 over all of France (against ca. 500’000 integrated Rroma), the commentaries of the neighbours are really really scary. Listen …
The current president of the federal tribunal, Ms. Bettina Limperg is ashamed at an old judgement from the tribunal referring to Rroma as a “plague”. Contrary to what one could think, this judgement was not made under the Nazis but in 1956, so eleven years after the end of the War.
This statement was alas by no mean an exception, as the Rroma Holocaust was not recognised as having been based on ethnicity until the 1970’s.
A Madrid based French photographer, Pierre Gonnord has produced beautiful pictures of Rroma that he has taken in Spain. The pictures, while truly stunning, still play the old card of poor, non integrated Rroma. This is a pity, and actually, we do not need this – especially when presented as a general view of this minority.
The French Magazine “Valeurs Actuelles” has been condemned for incitation to racial hatred against Rroma for an article and title page of the magazine called: “Les Roms, l’Overdose” – The Rroma, the overdosis that was published in August 2014. The director of the publication, Yves de Kerdrel has been sentenced to a fine of 3’000 Euro.
This is a news, and good news, especially in France where the image of the Rroma is not good, and where even the Prime Minister is not adverse at racists statements against this minority.
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