Category Archives: News Western Europe

Deutschland News Westeuropa

Berlin and the Memorial

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Berlin and the Memorial

Deutsche Bahn is planning to expand a S-Bahn tunnel in Berlin. But there is opposition from representatives of the Roma and Sinti: They believe that the construction will endanger the memorial of the Sinti and Roma victims of the Nazi regime.

News Westeuropa Vereinigtes Königreich

UK, the Police, and Racism …

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UK, the Police, and Racism …

Manchester Police forced Roma and Traveller’s children who were attending a Christmas market onto trains which left them 100 miles away from Manchester. Roma and Travellers association are considering legal actions and have requested apologies from the police.

News Westeuropa Vereinigtes Königreich

UK and Roma

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UK and Roma

A councillor who had to resign over a tweet on August 2nd, the day commemorating the genocide of the Roma about a meeting held to discuss possible land to be allotted for camps of Roma and Travellers. Well, she is back in business.

Would this have been the case if she had done the same on another minority?

Frankreich News Westeuropa

French Chronicle …

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French Chronicle …

In Nantes, in Western France, the city is closing one of the largest Roma slums where more than 1’000 people live and is trying to re-lodge them. Near Paris, volunteers are catching stray cats on the site of a former Roma camp. The festival “A month for Roma” is closing with conferences and various activities. Unfortunately, they always speak of Travellers…

Finally, several articles on a reportage on the M6 channel filmed in a Roma camp. This reportage also showed that many of the residents of this camp work as day-labourers for farmers …

Italien News Westeuropa

Italy and Genocide

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Italy and Genocide

A Seminar to remember the Holocaust of the Roma and Sinti will be held on November 22 in Agnone on and aims to shed light on a dark chapter in European history, too often forgotten: the Genocide of the Roma and Sinti. Agnone is the town where from 1941 to 1943 Roma and Sinti were interned in the San Bernardino concentration camp

The program of the seminar includes a series of events ranging from visits to historical sites to conferences held by experts in the field. It will start on November 22 with a visit to the former Convent of San Bernardino, a place of memory that during the Second World War saw the internment of 150 Roma and Sinti. In the afternoon, at the Municipality of Agnone, a conference will be held with the participation of historians, activists and representatives of the Roma and Sinti communities.

Italien News Westeuropa

Rome – A Police Raid

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Rome – A Police Raid

A major police control operation was carried out at dawn by the Rome’s Carabinieri, with the support of the Dog Unit and a helicopter. This control focused on the Roma Camp in Via Candoni, which, according to the article is notoriously known as one of the hotbeds of crime in the capital. The intervention is part of a broader context of the fight against illegal activities, aiming to restore perceived and real security in the surrounding community. The operation involved an important identification action, during which 184 people of Romanian and Bosnian origin were registered, including 42 minors.

When you know that these camps are generally enclosed, and that you need to show you papers entering and leaving, you wonder …

Frankreich News Westeuropa

French Chronicle …

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French Chronicle …

A TV reportage in one of the largest Roma camps in France near Nantes in Western France. What is good, is that they say that these Roma only make about 20’000 people in the entire France, and that they are an essential pool of workers for the French agriculture… This is a real change of tone.

Other news are more of the usual: The government policies on Roma are being criticised (the news is that there seems to be one); the month for Roma action with a few events; a camp near Paris near a waste treatment centre; a project of a new site for Roma abandoned in Western France; and near Marseilles, some politics regarding drugs and Roma camps.

Frankreich News Westeuropa

French Chronicle …

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French Chronicle …

A few articles on the action “a month for Roma”, with exhibitions and documentaries. Unfortunately always with the idea that Roma are “Travellers”… In Perpignan, in the South of France, there was a conference of Manouches, Gitans and Roma. Finally, items stolen from building sites were recovered ina Roma camp near Angers in the centre of France.

Tschechische Republik Frankreich News Osteuropa News Westeuropa

France – via the Czech Press

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France – via the Czech Press

4,000 people came to an illegal rave party near Rennes in northwestern France on Saturday. But their loud music in the abandoned hall by the highway bothered the Roma community, which had a camp right next door. The night skirmish between the two groups ended with 14 injured, local firefighters reported on Sunday.

Frankreich News Westeuropa

French Chronicle …

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French Chronicle …

Quite a number of articles this past week in France about Roma. A conference on the “Gypsy practises” mentioning nomads; another one on the persecution of Roma, Sinti, and Yénisches, which perpetuates some of the stereotypes; and an action to help Roma from a slum.

After that, a small commune in Western France which doesn’t want to expel Roma without a more permanent housing solution; and finally, a plethora of articles of a false rumour that a small village next to Nantes would see 500 caravans and Roma resettled there.

News Osteuropa News Westeuropa Rumänien Ukraine Vereinigtes Königreich

Ukraine, the UK and Roma

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Ukraine, the UK and Roma

A reprint of a Guardian article in the Ukrainian press about Roma palaces in Hășdat.

Both articles pander to sterotypes…

Frankreich News Westeuropa

French Chronicle …

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French Chronicle …

More news this week about Roma in France. First, a photography exhibition about Roma in the Balkans. The issue, they speak of “nomad” populations, which is totally wrong in the Balkans. Second, it shows the usual pictures of poverty and many children, which is a result of exclusion, not Roma traditions. In brief, these exhibitions strengthen stereotypes.

A reportage in Nantes  focuses on a new camp near the city and the controversies that it generates there. The story of a premature baby who was abbducted by its parents recently made the headlines in France. The parents were later stopped in Belgium. Here, the article says that the father and mother are Roma, that the father is a petty criminal and the mother a toxicoman.

The other news are more common: A camp near Paris and one near Toulosue were dismantled.

Italien News Westeuropa

Padua and Roma

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Padua and Roma

The city of Padua received 1 million euros for th integration of Romane children and adolescents. That’s nice, but that is also not much …

Bulgarien Griechenland News Osteuropa News Westeuropa Rumänien

Greece and the “Copper Mafia”

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Greece and the “Copper Mafia”

Several articles in the Bulgarian press about a police action in Roma settlements in Greece against the “copper mafia”, which steals and trades metals on the black market. According to the police, these are usually Roma gangs, and the target of their raids are copper cables and railway tracks. Catalytic converters are also removed from the cars, which are then sold on the black market for between 400 and 900 euros. The more expensive ones are stolen to order from illegal car repair shops.

Among the people arrested there were Greeks, Bulgarians, and Romanians.

Frankreich News Westeuropa

French Chronicle …

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French Chronicle …

Another one of these misinformed “documentaries” in France that show one can say anything about Roma. Here, in one of the main TV chanels, where they say there are 17’000 Roma in France – well, if you use that (as the French do) aas a synonym for Romanian Roma of recent arrival, this is correct. But nevertheless, this is pitifull.

Other news are a festival, l’Arbre vagabond in Chambon-sur-Lignon; a vampo near Nantes, where there was a fire fater which it was vacated; another campo where the city of Nantes dives itself 4 years (yes) to relocate Roma from a camp; and in the same city, a new Roma camp in a site that is full of arsenic and mercury.

The French have done nothing in more than twenty years to integrate around 20’000 Roma from Romania. They are still living in slums, being evicted and resettling in another one. Shame.

Griechenland News Westeuropa

Conference in Greece

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Conference in Greece

A conference on Antisemmitism and anti-Roma racism in Greece on October 17th. It goes unter the motto “Let us never forget” and investigates the roots of the Holocaust, a systematic genocide during World War II,  which targeted, Jews and Roma on ethnic grounds. Its roots lie in long-standing prejudices and the radicalization of exclusionary ideologies during the nation-building period of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Understanding this historical context is crucial to recognizing and combating similar forms of discrimination today.

Frankreich News Westeuropa

French Chronicle …

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Not much this week in France The coutnry is more focused on its government (or potential lack thereof) than about Roma. Only one notable article about the closure of a larg Roma camp near Nantes.

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