Unfortunately some Roma do not really contribute to the acceptance of Roma in the general population. Here, the report of a scam run by Roma in the centre of Lublin.
Bad.
Several Roma refugees from the Ukraine arrived in Freiburg, Germany.
A reportage in the Western Ukrainian city of Uzhhorod, near the Slovak and Hungarian borders, a city with a large Roma minority which now takes care of many additional Roma refugees from other places in the Ukraine.
The Romani writer Elena Lacková was born 101 years ago on March 22.
An article about Roma refugees from the Ukraine in the Czech Republic. The article cites roughly 500 Roma, mostly women with small children, and mostly from Western Ukraine – the region around Uzhgorod.
Main problem, the language barrier.
Roma in Serbia are being courted by all parties, as usual, and being promised a lot or bought outright. The electoral list “Roma Patria – Srdjan Šajn” called on the citizens today to take whatever is being offered to in exchange for votes, but to vote according to their conscience, noting that “buying votes is a collapse of democracy”.
No words …
Research from Romea in the Czech Republic confirmed by local Roma NGOs and our own research on the web, show that photographs from Lviv, Ukraine, on which Roma are strapped to columns and sticky on their faces, are which are spreading on social networks have a somewhat different background. The photos allege that they are refugees from Kiev who were attacked without delay by local Ukrainians immediately upon arrival. However, as the Romea.cz news server found out, the context of the photos is somewhat different. This is allegedly a group of pickpockets who were arrested in this unacceptable way while stealing. Russian propaganda uses photographs disseminated in a different context to confirm the presence of neo-Nazis in Ukraine.
Another article with more details about the roughly 500 Roma refugees from the Ukraine who made it to the Czech Republic.
Bad publicity… The Plovdiv Police said that two Roma families were on trial. Then they quarrelled with each other outside. More than 20 people gathered and started shouting, and then a fight. One of the men pulled out a weapon and fired into the air. No one was injured.
Many Roma in the Ukraine have no official papers, not even a birth certificate. This is clearly more prevalent in the countryside and in the Southwestern part of the country, although the number of Roma without papers is difficult to assess. Now, as refugees from the War, they are doubly discriminated.
The picture of Roma bound to posts made it though the social media, amplified by Russia, alleging this was outright discrimination. As usual, reality is more circumstantiated, as these Roma were caught stealing (see also below the article in Romea). Nevertheless, self-justice, and especially of this kind is not acceptable.
This Ukrainian article strongly condemn this act, and effectively says this plays in the hand of the Russians in their attempt to portray all Ukrainians as Nazis.
Seems that the Hamburg politics has an anti-Roma racism issue.
A portrait of a Romano activist.
The English version of the article on Romeo Franz, a Green EU MP and a Sinto.
The City of Freiburg is organising help for refugees from the Ukraine, also for Roma.
Romani Rose has been chairman of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma since 1982, that is for 40 years. Born in Heidelberg, he received a lot of recognition for his commitment to fighting discrimination. However, Romani Rose still sees prejudices against Sinti and Roma in society. The 75-year-old comes from a Sinti family. 13 members of his family were murdered in the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp and in the Ravensbrück concentration camp. With the Heidelberg Documentation and Cultural Centre of German Sinti and Roma, Romani Rose commemorates the Nazi genocide of the European Sinti and Roma.
Not many news this week. Roma abandoned a camp near Paris Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport; an exhibition on Roma slavery in Romania in Nantes; the controversial “transition” village near Montpellier is ready; and a clean-up needed after the closure of a camp near Paris.
Two articles in the French Press on refugees from the Ukraine. In Budapest and in Warsaw. In Budapest, Roma have been sent to a vagrant shelter, and in Warsaw, they struggle to find lodgings.
In the context of the “Eastern Neighbours Film Festival”, an encounter with three Romnja directors.
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