A report on Roma in the Ukraine, their origins, historical arrivals and history up to the Ukrainian independence. The focus however is on the situation of the Roma in the Ukraine after the independence of the country, including the pogroms that occurred there, and their plight as refugees in Europe.

The full report in English can be downloaded here.

Introduction

The war currently raging in the Ukraine has highlighted the plight of Roma in that country and as refugees. In some cases, attacks against Roma have been used by the Russian as a demonstration of the prevalence of “fascism” in the Ukraine. This was very much what happened with the picture of Roma bound to posts in Lviv at the beginning of he war where the excellent review from the Roma organisation Roma highlights the source, the usage, and the full story behind these shocking pictures.
As usual, however, the situation is more complex than simple press article are capable of presenting, and the story is more balanced and shaded than people would like to present. So yes, there have been anti-Roma pogroms in the Ukraine, unfortunately with very little legal consequences for the perpetrators, but no, it is not the norm by far, as many Roma are well integrated in the country. Discriminations exist, but by and large, they are by far less prevalent than in other European countries. Switzerland has by far more negative and racist stereotypes against Roma than Ukraine. We know several Roma with university degrees and good jobs in the country, reflecting the high level of integration of many of them.
The advent of the war also highlighted issues of discrimination against Roma in Poland, Moldova, Czech and Slovak Republics, Hungary, Germany and so on, and also surfaced some of the effects of Hungary’s policy of granting passports to citizen outside of Hungary, resulting in the Czech government denying these Roma refugees status in the Czech Republic.
The aim of this report is to present a short overview of the Roma groups and history in the territories of the present day Ukraine and highlight the situation of Roma in modern Ukraine and the fate of Roma in the War as well as the issues they face as refugees from in other places.
A substantial part of this report is the result of our tracking of news about Roma in many countries, something that can be followed on and has ben ongoing for the last 12 years. This has given us a trove of references on the Ukraine for this report. We have also kept contacts with Roma and Roma activists in the Ukraine ever since 1992.
A few words on the Ukraine: We refer to the Ukraine as the lands included when it became independent in 1991, thus including Crimea and the Donbas. When speaking about specific regions, we have included some historic background (Transcarpathia, Bessarabia, etc.). We have chosen to use the Ukrainian spelling of places such as Kyiv, Lviv, etc.
A word on other terminology: We call the current events a war, definitively not a “special operation” whatever the Russian propaganda says. When cities are levelled down, when civilian casualties are in the thousands, this is a war.