The police and the Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime committed direct discrimination against a Roma child from Prilep by failing to conduct a thorough and detailed investigation into how the child was injured in the head, chest and back and whether this was due to the use of excessive police force.
Surprised?
On Friday morning, a round table on the topic of Roma employment in the Moravian-Silesian region took place in the community center Vesnička sužítí in the Muglinov district of Ostrava. The main topic of discussion was the question of how to break down prejudices and improve cooperation between Roma workers and employers in the region. “The Roma want to work, and entrepreneurs in the Moravian-Silesian Region are also in demand for workers, but there is still mistrust and discrimination that prevents greater integration. We have to find a way to change this situation and encourage both sides to cooperate,” said MEP Zdechovský.
An article that says the mantra of the government that if Roma have decent living conditions, they would integrate more is totally wrong, and that there are Roma who are not willing to integrate at all. They cite all ills: violence, threats, burglaries, thefts, attacks on police officers, unemployment, only a handful of children who finish primary school, illegal constructions, non-payment of utility bills, numerous traffic violations, shootings from settlements, drug dealing, living on social assistance, burning toxic substances, vandalism…
The mayor of Ribnica, Samo Pogorelec, says that he will deny the Roma drinking water until he judges that they have earned it through better behaviour.
When the President of the Republic, Nataša Pirc Musar, visited the Roma settlement Lepovče in the municipality of Ribnica at the end of May, she said, among other things: school. If it doesn’t go with the carrot, you also need a bit of a stick, in quotation marks.”
Thes repressive ideas are making headway in Slovenia.
This is bad.
Hungarian Prime Minister Orban had a new decree issued removing the refugee status of Ukrainian in “safe” counties. As a result, quite a few refugees found themselves on the street… Sot this issue? They are all Roma from Transcarpathia, a region Orban claims as his, and they all speak Hungarian.
But are not Hungarian in his view.
Bad and sad.
https://youtu.be/3_jLntdu-us In: Telex. 22.08.2024.
A lone voice in Slovenia setting context about the Roma “problem”. She states that a summer without particularly prominent problems with illegal migrants brought political activation at the expense of problems with another convenient group, the Roma, who, unlike the first, are considered some kind of imaginary “internal enemies”.
In brief, once is creating some scapegoats based on effective petty criminality, whose causes (exclusion and racism) are totally excluded.
Dangerous.
We will have to introduce a Slovenian chronicle, akin to the French Chronicle we have been doing due to the high number of articles on the Roma “problem” in the Slovenian press. Thes articles are divided pretty much along party lines. One side says that the issues, and the recent attacks are the result of the current government inaction, while the other side is more differentiated.
Here the view on the government inaction…
Minister of Labour, Social Affairs and Family Erik Tomáš received the Government Plenipotentiary for Roma communities Alexander Daško. The subject of the labour negotiations on projects aiming to create job positions for low-skilled and long-term unemployed people, as well as a legislative proposal to withdraw or reduce benefits in material need for those unemployed who can work, but refuse a suitable job offer.
Daško doesn’t see anything discriminatory in those measures.
Bad.
After a recent visit to Slovakia, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Michael O’Flaherty called on the Slovak authorities to urgently address the “terrible living conditions” of thousands of Roma. In the east of Slovakia, he visited Stará Tehelňa in Prešov, Jarovnice, Petrovany, Luník IX in Košice and Kecerovce, where he met with representatives of Roma communities, local authorities and groups working with Roma.
“Prejudice against Roma is deeply rooted in society. Discrimination affects all areas of Roma life in Slovakia: from placing Roma women in separate maternity wards to segregated Roma children in education. Many Roma are deprived of access to adequate housing and are rejected in job interviews, ” he stated.
There are many Roma in Slovakia under the long term unemployed. Many of them retrained, but employers do not want to hire them… And now the minister wants to stop the benefits if they refuse a job. The fear is that the jobs they will propose are menial work with 19th century technology like the Hungarian közmunka (public work).
A flash mob took place in the center of Chisinau on July 7. The mostly Roma participants chanted slogans such as “Stop ethnic discrimination!” or “Stop the hate speech. Yes! Stop inciting hatred against Roma. Yes! Stop inciting hatred towards anyone. Yes!”
Another Slovak article about the latest measures from Minister of Labor Erik Tomáš to reduce unemployment and prevent abuse of the social system.
“We want to employ and get to work as many Roma as possible,” said the minister at the beginning of the press conference. How will it work in practice? If an unemployed person rejects a job offer, the material need benefit will be withdrawn or reduced for 12 months. According to the law, it still applies that it must be such an offer that is suitable for the person in question and corresponds to his abilities.
Well, how will it work with Roma? Since most companies do not want to employ them, how is this supposed to work? This is just another of those populists measures that bring nothing.
Erik Tomáš, the current Slovak Minister of Labour introduced new laws aimed at cutting benefits to unemployed and reducing the social contributions. He basically wants those who hate Roma to applaud him.
The numbers have remained fairly stable, and it is not just Roma who receive social contrinbutions…
On Slovak TV, they are wondering why Slovak Roma in Belgium all work, whereas in Slovakia, this is not the case.
Well, it has to do with the prejudices of the employers …
“Everyone who can work should work.” The Minister of Labour Erik Tomáš (Voice) began Tuesday’s press conference with these words, which was aimed at reducing unemployment and specifically affects unemployed citizens abusing the system. Here, unanimously, read “Roma”.
“If an unemployed person rejects a job offer, the financial need benefit will be taken away or reduced,” he said, adding that this should work in the case of adequate offers that are appropriate to the abilities of the citizen in question. He added that it already works similarly in the case of works in the public interest.
Well, when you come from a Roma settlement, you will not get employed. So what else did they decide, very much like in Hungary, some local work for the communes (not paid to market prices). If it turns out like in Hungary, you get 19th century work with the very same results …
Roma in the Czech Republic are much more likely to receive a fixed-term (limited duration) contract at work. In the whole of the Czech Republic, about seven percent of employed people have it, half of Roma workers. Roughly every ninth Roma then works without a contract. This was shown by research on the socio-economic situation of the Roma population in the Czech Republic for last year and this year. The report with the results was published by the Research Institute of Labor and Social Affairs (RILSA).
This result has been interpreted somewhat differently in the Czech press, for example in the IDnes paper, which states in its title “Even if they work, they have no security. Half of the Roma have a contract only for a fixed period”.
The generalization of half of the people in Czechia who have fixed terms contracts doesn’t mean that half the Roma do.
A dreadful reportage in a segregated school in the Czech Republic. Karel Rajchl, the director of the Vojanova Elementary School in Děčín says that getting children and their families to cooperate is often almost impossible.
“Shh, they’re writing a test,” she warns, upon entering the seventh-grade physics class. The teacher replies “It doesn’t matter, they can’t do anything anyway”. In the last pews, two boys don’t even bother to have an open notebook in which to calculate the task entered on the blackboard, they just giggle. “These boys are one step away from raping our young female teachers,” states principal Rajchl dryly as he leaves the class again.
No Comments…
A reportage in Arte about the discriminations that Roma refugees from the Ukraine are facing in the country.
The President of the Slovenian Republic, Nataša Pirc Musar, visited the municipality of Ribnica on Tuesday and, together with the mayor, Sam Pogorel, saw the Roma settlement Lepovče, which the municipality wants to relocate because it is located in an industrial zone. At the same time, Pirc Musar supported the efforts of the mayors of 11 municipalities in south-eastern Slovenia and Posavija to tighten certain benefits for the Roma. “If it doesn’t work with a carrot, you also need a little stick,” she said. She also said that she supports most of the proposed laws that also solve the Roma issue. The latter was submitted to the National Assembly by 11 municipalities last year, but was flatly rejected by the government coalition for being racially biased.
Around 400 Roma live in Mostar. Excluded from a very young age due to lack of support from the education system and the government, they suffer discrimination and prejudice. A double punishment for these citizens who fight every day for their inclusion.
EN 
DE 
FR