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.
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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.
The decision made public on May 13, 2024 by the European Committee of Social Rights of the Council of Europe, which unanimously concluded that Italy had committed serious and systematic violations of the European Social Charter with regard to housing situation of Roma communities, must herald a change in Italy’s discriminatory policies on access to housing, Amnesty International said.
In its latest report, Amnesty criticised Slovakia for its discrimination against Roma. Specially, they also drew attention on cases of police brutality against Roma.
An editorial on discrimination of Roma in Czechia, but also on the comparison to other European states such as Germany and Spain. Conclusion is, well, while in other states discrimination does exist, at least it is being fought again. While in Czechia …
A reportage on a Roma theatre in Hamburg fighting against racism in Germany.
The Czech government adopted the definition of antitsiganism, i.e. anti-Roma Racism. This is the definition that was done by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.
According to the government commissioner for Roma minority affairs, Lucie Fuková, this indicates that discrimination is not welcome in the Czech Republic. She said this at a press conference after the cabinet meeting. According to the government commissioner for human rights, Klára Šimáčková Laurenčíková, this is the right step to reject any prejudicial and stereotypical behaviour against the Roma minority in the Czech Republic.
Miroslav Zubaj is a guide at the Museum of Roma Culture, which stands in the middle of the feared and prejudiced Cejl district. In the interview, he describes the history of the Brno Roma community, the roots of the problems there and the current situation of the locals, which is far from ideal.
A report on the day to day discrimination faced by Roma in Germany.
Sad.
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Recent research among the local Roma population of the district showed that Roma people feel safe in Prague’s 3rd district, but they encounter prejudices in the commercial housing market.
Two articles dwelling on what happened in the 16 years since the Czech Republic was condemned for school segregation and discrimination against Roma. There are still segregated school, and according to the Deputy Minister of Education Jiří Nantl (ODS), Czech society is thereby producing clients of the welfare state.
These schools should be closed, and desegregations should be enforced.
The Czechoslovak president Masaryk contributed to the establishment of a should for Roma in what is now Transcarpathian Ukraine and before was the Ruthenian region of Czechoslovakia. The school was opened as an experiment to try to integrate Roma in the regular school system and Roma contributed to its creation. It was also a de-facto segregated school…
In 2007, the European Court of Human Rights, in a ground-breaking decision, condemned the Czech Republic for discriminating against Roma pupils in their access to education.
However, the Czech Republic continues to discriminate against Roma children in education in spite of this condemnation. Recent statistics show that 15% of Roma children are educated outside of the regular school system (i.e. special schools) whereas for the majority population, this is the case only for 3% of the children.
So there are still special schools in addition to at least 130 segregated ones.
The W Stron Dialogu (Towards Dialogue ) Foundation works for the Roma community in Poland, writes that “Roma and Roma women from Ukraine who found shelter in Poland faced – and still face – discrimination, worse treatment and rejection.” The organization believes that Roma refugees from Ukraine have become “second-class refugees ignored by the current authorities, which turned a blind eye to segregation and the lack of access of Roma women and men to collective accommodation centres, thus allowing discrimination against this weakest group of refugees.”
They launched an appeal to the Polish Government.
In 2006, the city of Vsetín turned to the Constitutional Court (ÚS) in the case of Roma eviction. The Supreme Court (NS) recently increased the compensation to several Roma families who had to move out of Vsetín. Four families with 46 NS members were awarded compensation from the city in the aggregate amount of 1.825 million crowns, the management of the Vsetín town hall considers unfair.
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