Travelers will finally have a place to stay in Basle Switzerland. A new place when they can stay overnight or for longer periods will open soon and will be run by the Association of Swiss Sinti and Roma.
Good!
Travelling Rroma who were forced to leave their camp a few days earlier, were attacked at their new camping site. A person first started beating up a 70 years old Rroma and shortly thereafter, a firebomb was thrown at the caravans.
The police who were called let the attacker go without arresting him, even though he had severely beaten up someone without reason.
SHAME!
In Basle, until April, there is no place were travellers can stay. They had to leave a place in the city, which will be established as a permanent camping site for Travellers, and they ended up squatting a field from which they were now expelled. There are to few of these sites in Switzerland to accommodate Travellers in Switzerland.
A Manouche in the temple of classical music in Zurich … It doesn’t happen everyday.
One of the really least researched, most populist articles in the Swiss press in a long time. Low concentration of facts and logic, high populist overtones.
Not acceptable. And by the way, the results of the study (see second article) are not acceptable either.
PROTEST!
An article on foreign (i.e. Rroma) travellers in Swotzerland. These are often described as dirty by the local travellers (Jenische) and by the press and accused of leaving a mess behind when they leave their camps. This study is somewhat more differentiated!
Yverdon is considering forbidding begging, following the steps of Lausanne. Bad idea, and when one thinks of how many people are concerned (less than 60 in Lausanne), why bother …
The French government is defending its policies on fighting children poverty at the UN in Geneva. Besides the high number of children living in poverty in that country, France was also criticised about access to schools and discrimination of migrants, especially of Rroma.
An article about the somewhat peculiar relationship between Lausanne and its few beggars. There are around 60 of them at any given point in time (not much), a few of them are Rroma, mostly from one region of Romania, and Lausanne is in a love hate relationship with them.
A lot of noise for a small problem…
A new prime time movie showcases Sinti on prime time in Germany. We haven’t seen it, but the plot has a few of the standard stereotypes … Unfortunately.
A sordid story of a mal prostitute from Romania and his client and violence. The prostitute slit the throat of the client in whose flat he was living, killed the dogs and torched the flat.
OK, it is crime. What is the relevance here of the fact that the two criminals were Rroma? Does it add anything or does it just strengthen stereotypes?
The Geneva police went to investigate a case of human trafficking – a man accused to have sold his invalid son to go and beg in Geneva. As usual, stereotypes prevail. No one has so far proven that there are criminal clans engaged in begging. There are families who live from that, but this is about it. And it is not a business – not for 20 CHF per day.
An article about the mobilisation of the Swiss rightist party (SVP/UDC) against Rroma travellers in Martigny, in the French speaking part of Switzerland.
Populists!
Norman Gobbi, from the rightist Swiss party SVP is a candidate for the election to Minister in the Swiss government. Unfortunately, Mr. Gobbi is not a blank page: He has contact with the Italian Lega, and in the case of travellers, he stated “Sind das noch Menschen oder doch eher Tiere?”[are these still human beings or just animals] in the context of depredations of a Highway stop in the South of Switzerland.
The guy belongs to another century and country!
A report in several European countries highlights that Rroma are the least popular minority, ahead of Moslems …
Long way to go|
The debate on forbidding begging (assimilated to Rroma) is still going on in spite of the low numbers of beggars and no real logic or impact in forbidding it.
Total BS …
Rroma are being used for political purposes by the Swiss right, this time in the French speaking part of Switzerland.
An article that highlights the fact that Rroma are not migrants per se but are increasingly being forced to be… This is a phenomenon that was historically seen in Europe, with the Sinti becoming “nomad” simply because they were not allowed to settle anywhere in Germany.
SHAME!
Yes, indeed – Rroma are from Northwestern India and left there more than a thousand years ago. Genetic studies show this quite clearly. Mind you, if you speak Rromanes, you don’t necessarily need a study to find this out …
The City of Biel / Bienne in the Swiss Jura is trying to prevent “foreign” Travellers, i.e. Rroma from neighbouring countries to stop there on so-called transit camps. This is the result of political activism from the Swiss Jenische (Travellers), and this, is spite of the fact that these foreign Rroma have been coming regularly every year for decades.
SHAME!
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