Well, no real surprise here: Swiss do not consider racism to be a real problem, but they also have trouble defining it. And clearly, Roma are the ones who are the most common victims of it.
Roma families in Kryvyi Rih (Ukraine) were visited by Juvenile Inspectors, Specialists of the Children’s Service of the Executive Committee of Dovhyntsivka District Council in the city, and teachers of Kryvorizka Gymnasium No. 84 to “assess their living conditions and education status.
According to the article, “preventive” discussions were held with the parents regarding “responsible parenting” and the need for children to get an education. It furthers with “The emphasis is on preventing the use of children for begging and involving them in illegal activities.”
This says a lot about what people think of Roma there.
The mayor of Belgrade said that Roma need to “make a decision about whether they want to live in a way today that follows the standards of the civilized world” – and adding that the city’s Roma get by on stealing and harassing citizens.
He was criticised. He should be dismissed.
There seems to be an increase of care proceeding for children of Roma in Bradford, UK. The city of Bradford has taken several young Roma children in their care.
Basically, they are continuing some old policies. This is bad.
In Rome’s subway, an announcement over the loudspeakers said loudly several time: “attenti agli zingari” [beware of Gypsies]. This is a first. Luckily, the company who runs Rome’s subway, Atac, is taking action.
We have a long way to go …
A scandal broke out at a festival in Miskolc, Hungary. Gyula Horváth, the president of a Roma organisation had all the permission to collect donations and distribute balloons at the festival. The city police, however, harassed him and told him to leave.
“They have been harassing me since the morning, since the Festival started. First they wanted to disturb me, then they threatened me, then they wanted to ring out the stand with a cordon. There were about ten people here, they checked my papers, but I have all the official permits,” Horváth told.
The president negotiated with the police for two hours. In the meantime, they took photos of him, and then the police sent the photos to the mayor.
Sinti and Roma organisations as well as other victims associations are asking the members of the Hamburg Parliament to include not only the fight against anti-Semitism but also anti-Gypsyism as a state goal in the state constitution. “With the change in the preamble to the Hamburg Constitution, you will soon have the rare opportunity to take responsibility for the memory of National Socialist terror,” says a letter published on Monday by the Auschwitz Committee, National Association of Sinti in Hamburg, Rome and Cinti Union and the Association of Victims of the Nazi Regime – Association of Anti-Fascists to the MPs.
The case of two Roma who were assaulted by the police has been reopened in Romania. This is a first in Romania where the court contradicted the prosecution who wanted the case dismissed.
Attacks against Sinti and Roma have increased in Germany. Last year, the authorities registered a total of 145 crimes against Sinti and Roma – the highest number in six years. This emerges from the response of the Federal Ministry of the Interior to a request from the left-wing faction.
Bad.
A portrait of Angela Kapler, a successful Sintiza and on the discrimination and prejudices she faced.
The picture is not pretty on the police in Serbia. The report is scathing.
Three years after the racist attack in Hanau, Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth (Greens) spoke of a “shock for all of us” that is still having an effect today. The suffering of the victims and their grieving relatives must be given more attention in our remembrance, she demanded on Sunday – exactly three years after the attack. Other top politicians and the evangelical church also commemorated the victims.
A reportage in Mitrovica, Kosovo, among Roma. It is bad and is not improving, 15 years after the declaration of independence.
According to the Council of Europe, Italy is not doing enough on the integration of Roma. Despite various parliamentary initiatives, a national legal framework has still not been adopted. Anti-Gypsyism persists at all levels of society and is insufficiently fought against. A negative portrayal of Roma and Sinti remains widespread, including on social media.
Quite a few news and articles about Roma in France this week. It all starts with the destruction of a Roma camp in Villeron (Val d’Oise) near Paris by local residents. The town’s mayor participated in this de-facto pogrom and is now under investigation. It is sad, and it is also the reflection of a total failure of the French state. These shantytowns lodge less than 20’000 people. They have, for the most part, been in France for 20 years. And the sate failed in their integration.
The other big news is that of a French senator for the centre right stating that the deputies of the LFI (La France Insoumise – Leftist party) are transforming the National Assembly in a “Gypsy camp”. Several associations have requested he excuses himself and have complained about the systemic racism against Roma in France.
A bad week …
In the Stodolní Street in the center of Ostrava in the eastern part of the country, about a hundred Roma demonstrated in the early evening on Wednesday. They protested against the fact that security guards of some bars in this area allegedly physically attack Roma visitors for no reason, and the police allegedly do nothing about this violence. The crowd reached the nearby police station.
The event was called by Roma activist David Mezei. “There were two such cases in January alone, when the security guard beat up a young visitor for no reason just because he is Rom. It doesn’t work like that anymore. The police only save money, but they never investigate anything,” Mezei was angry, with other participants of the demonstration shouting in agreement.
Material from a secondary school in the Czech Republic labels Roma a “natural biological risk”.
This qualification would be more fitting to the person(s) who devised this material…
The head of the council of the Evangelical Church in Germany, Anette Kurschus, acknowledged that her church was involved in the exclusion of Sinti and Roma during the National Socialist period. Kurschus said in Berlin that the Evangelical Church took many blamable actions. The church was involved in betraying people and handing them over to be destroyed. Kurschus also announced an increased commitment against today’s discrimination of the minority.
This is a historical event. When will the other denominations follow?
The Church of England took a positive step and recognized that the church played a significant role in anti-Roma racism. When are the other churches (and also non-Christian denominations) going to do the same?
The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and the Central Council of Sinti and Roma have signed an agreement to take joint action against antigypsyism. The BKA recognizes the working definition of antiziganism of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, as the police authority in Wiesbaden announced. This can be used to counteract racism against Sinti and Roma.
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