In the centre of Pilsen, Czechia, after the AraFest 2025 Roma culture festival, which took place on Republic Square in the very centre of the city, police had to intervene because of a fight between tow Romani families.
Shame.
The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) and Amnesty International Slovakia demand an independent investigation into information about alleged police violence against residents of the Roma community in the village of Veľká Ida in Slovakia.
As stated in the statement of the organizations, the investigation of police violence against Roma in Slovakia has been ineffective in the past and has repeatedly failed to lead to justice. According to them, Roma communities in Slovakia continue to face police violence and raids.
An article about a police intervention about several hundred people, many of which, according to the police were drunk. One police officer was apparently attacked, and one person was arrested.
What is really remarkable here is that the word “Roma” was not written, only that the incident was under investigation by the office of the plenipotentiary of the government for Roma communities.
Let’s see whether the intervention was warranted.
According to the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), the rights of two complainants, a Roma father and son, were violated after they became victims of violent intervention by the police during the first lockdown in April 2020 in Bardejov. The court found that the use of force by the police, leading to injuries such as a skull fracture in one applicant and a concussion in the other, was manifestly disproportionate and the investigation into the police violence was inadequate. TASR was informed about this by the spokesman for the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC), Jonathan Lee. The ERRC represented the applicants.
An article about the police action in the French speaking cantons of Switzerland that attempts to prevent Roma travellers from coming to Switzerland. The Police in Valais even illegally blocked a highway to prevent Roma from passing. They issue fines, but also summons.
This is clearly racist.
On Tuesday (20.05.), the regional criminal police intervened in several places in Bratislava as part of the case of a masked neo-Nazi group that was planning to attack people in the capital. According to noviny.sk, the police detained more than 20 people. Among them were juveniles. However, their number may not be final.
This group had been targeting migrants and Roma in the capital for months.
The police did not protect a family who was attacked by a mob on May 3rd in the Serbian village of Travnik, shouting racist insults. The police then trivialised the event.
Shame.
The head of the police force in the Canton Valais has been defending his decision to stop the ca. 40 caravans of French Roma on a highway on April 15th.
In an interview published Saturday in “Le Nouvelliste”, Christian Varone, commander of the Valais cantonal police, spoke at length about the blocking of caravans on Tuesday, April 15, on the highway in Saint-Maurice, disrupting traffic between Vaud and Valais for more than seven hours in the region.
HeE said: “There’s zero tolerance for situations where public order is not respected.”
The problem is precisely determining the extent to which these Roma failed to respect public order while traveling to Gampel, where they had duly rented a private campsite. They had paid some 15,000 francs in advance for the rental. They were driving peacefully along the highway with their wives and children before encountering the Valais sheriff and his deputies.
The Police commander said that the Roma themselves to the owner of this land as Swiss Jenishe when they were actually Roma of French nationality. Upon learning of this, the lessor considered it a fraud and cancelled the agreement.” He communicated his decision to us orally, then in writing a few days later.
Following the illegal action of the police in the Canton of Valais, stopping caravans of Roma, an article that totally missed the point. It says that Jenische object being thrown in the same bag as Roma travellers and misses the fact that the real issue is the lack of camping site.
We are not speaking of a large issue: There are maybe 3’000 YEnische travellers, and the same number of Roma who come over the summer…
After conducting individual investigative actions, the Ljubljana District Prosecutor’s Office has filed an indictment with the Kočevje District Court for threats to Ribnica Mayor Sam Pogorelec. Pogorelec had hosted representatives of the Ribnica Roma, with whom they discussed providing water to the Roma settlements of Otavice and Goriča vas. Following this, he was threatened by a Rom who objected to the mayor’s view that water would only be provided if Roma show “good behaviour”.
The Greek Minister of Citizen Protection Michalis Chrysochoïdis has announced two new shock measures: a ban on public concerts in the Exarchia district of Athens and the creation of a specialized police unit to combat crime among Roma communities. The minister cited very high crime rates. “This situation must end. These groups are responsible for a large number of crimes: drug trafficking, fraud, burglaries, robberies… And it is the residents of the affected areas who are paying the price.”
According to him, the unit is already operational, with a structure, a hierarchy, ongoing investigations, and identified individuals. “Our objective is clear: to dismantle these networks. This is a personal commitment, first to myself, but also on behalf of the police.” This has been going on for decades, it’s time to put an end to it. But to do so, we will need everyone’s commitment.”
Bad.
Another article in the Swiss press about 200 policemen stopping 42 caravans and ca. 150 French Roma on a highway, forcing them to turn back, this in spite of not having done anything illegal.
The police de facto blocked the highway for 7 hours!
Shame.
The police of the canton of Valais stopped a convoy of 42 caravans and around 150 Roma on the highway. They had no right to do so, as they had not done anything wrong. The Roma had to turn around and go back to the Canton of Nechatel.
Shame.
A story which is symptomatic of what is going on in Slovenia right now. A Slovenian social worker’s car was pelted with stones while passing a Roma settlement in the Doljenska region. They reported it to the police. In the end, he got a fine for violating public order.
Why? Because during the altercation, he told one of the children to go f•ck yourself, you monkey.
What really happened will never come out, but the article says that Roma can do whatever they want, and ethnic Slovenes get punished…
Bulgarian Police and gendarmerie were stationed at the entrances of several settlements in the Sliven region. The Roma neighbourhood in Sliven was sealed by the police and a checkpoint set up in the Sliven “Nadezhda” neighbourhood. It was for a special operation aimed at combating drug trafficking and domestic crime. Public order was also being monitored on the eve of the Bango Vasil holiday which the article deems to be the Roma New Yea which is in fact the old new year according to the orthodox calendar.
On Krupówki, one of the main street in Zakopane, there are apparently more and more Roma bands from Poland but also from neighbouring Slovakia. Music on the street pleases some tourists but apparently bothers the city’s residents. The bands play too loudly and without permits. In order to put an end to this practice, Krupówki is constantly patrolled by the City Guard, and the players. The local city guards are now fining musicians.
Among Slovenian police officers, there also are several Roma who are trying to build a bridge between the Roma and the majority population. One of them, a policewoman from the Murska Sobota Police Station, works in the field of Roma issues and multiculturalism.
As she told STA, her goal is not only to provide advice when working with the Roma, but also to participate in various events. “Above all, I am a bridge of communication between the Roma and the rest,” she said.
A recording of a concert of a Roma band was published on Instagram. The crowd gathered in front of the band. The spectacle was going on as usual, until suddenly the sounds of sirens of an approaching police car resounded in the background. The Roma reacted immediately. They took their instruments and set off.
Apparently, in Zakopane in the Polish Tatra mountains, there are many Roma bands playing.
Another one of theses bad news. Police intervened in a Roma settlement due to a report of shooting and were then aggressed.
Bad.
From 10 to 13 December 2024, the Roma and Travellers Division of the Council of Europe, in cooperation with the Department for the Execution of Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, the Agent of the Hungarian Government before the ECHR and the Hungarian police authorities, organised a training of trainers based on the toolkit for police officers, focusing on the Council of Europe standards on racially motivated crimes and non-discrimination.
Well… Discrimination in Hungary is rampant. And the government has done nothing in the last 20 years against it…
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