According to Daniel Strauss, chairman of the State Association of Sinti and Roma in Baden-Württemberg, Roma were discriminated against in Ukraine, a discrimination which continued after fleeing the war zone to Germany.
An “article” about Roma refugees from the Ukraine in Switzerland, claiming they cash in the money and then leave again and come back after a while. The accusations are anonymous (diverse sources say …) or attributed to an Ukrainian.
When you know that the daily stipend of an adult refugee is less than 20 CHF per day and half that for children, this makes little financial sense but again, it portrays Roma as profiteers and liars.
Bad.
Another incident in a run-down housing estate in Krupka, Czech Republic. About 500 Roma manifested in the estate, claiming children had been sexually harassed by foreigners. According to Romea, initially the manifestation was not against Ukrainians, many protested against them.
The parents deposited a formal complaint with the police.
Interestingly enough, the news in the Czech Press do not mention sexual harassment, but rather that the children had been locked up in the cellar by drunk people.
Bad in any case.
An article about the recent attacks against Roma by Ukrainian refugees and the Roma protests that followed, protests that were supported by extremists. On controversial Roma activist, David Mezei, got close to nationalist movements, who, by the way do not want Roma ion the country.
Bad for all.
In his speech at today’s demonstration in front of the Government Office, pro-Roma activist from Ústí nad Labem Marcel Packert criticized the so-called patriots, who are actually extremists, xenophobes and anti-Semites. Packert warned against the dangers of associating these people with Roma.
This week in the Czech Republic, the police has been investigating several reports of other alleged attacks by Ukrainians on Roma. They were supposed to be in Sokolov and Přerov. The police have not yet fully completed their investigation and have not confirmed that all of the attacks actually occurred. There is a lot of misinformation being spread among the Roma, and the police have already charged one person for spreading an alarmist message.
This issue is being misused on purpose.
An article on the instrumentalization of the attacks by Ukrainian refugees against Roma in the Czech Republic.
The Czech government passed a law stating that from July 1st, Ukrainian refugees who have been in the country for more than 150 days will no longer receive allowances for housing and will have to find their own accommodation. Exempt are a few categories (single women with small children etc.).
Jan Husák from from the association Romodromo stated that this so-called Lex Ukraine will have the hardest impact, among others, on Roma refugees and will increase homelessness.
An article highlighting the fact that Roma refugees are being excluded by Ukrainian refugees.
The Berlin police wanted to deport a Roma family from Moldova early in the morning. The parents weren’t there, just two children. The officers took the 18-year-old daughter away and “handed over” the 11-year-old son to the neighbours. The boy then disappeared the management of the refugee home called the police and the youth welfare office, but even after the entire home was searched, he remained missing.
His siter was deported.
Many Roma in the Ukraine do not have any official documents. This prevents them from receiving social help, complicates their situation as IDPs, and often prevents them from finding official work. An action was started in Lviv, to help Roma obtain their papers.
Better late than never …
Out of the many refugees out of the Ukraine, ca. 100’000 are Roma. One of the issues they face is that many of them are stateless, they have no official papers, often lacking even a birth certificate that would prove their citizenship.
The fate of refugees in Western Europe is much better than in Eastern European countries bordering the Ukraine. There, they are definitively discriminated against.
An estimated 400,000 lived in Ukraine before the Russian invasion. A quarter fled the war-torn country. Many went to Poland. Władysław Kwiatkowski, president of the Roma Association in Poland, stated in an interview that “Not everyone in Poland realizes that many Roma fight in the ranks of the Ukrainian army. They defend their country. They are citizens of Ukraine, just like the rest”.
Dr. Małgorzata Kołaczek from the Foundation for Dialogue – one of the authors of the report “Human rights, and discrimination – the situation of Roma refugees from Ukraine in Poland. Report on research and intervention activities” Said:
“The Roma, like other Ukrainians, lose their life possessions, husbands and fathers at the front, and yet they are treated differently – as if their pain and suffering were less. As it happens in a situation of uncertainty and danger, the lowest human instincts are activated, which are directed towards those whom one “always” dislikes “.
A small child died in a fire in an asylum seeker centre in the Thuringian town of Apolda. The child is from a Roma family from the Ukraine.
It is not yet known whether this was arson or an accidental fire. Romani Rose, the chairman of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma is asking for a prompt investigation.
Roma from Ukraine fled to Hungary because of the war, but not because of poverty. Rozina is 38 years old Romni and is one of several thousand refugees from Ukraine who fled to Hungary after the Russian invasion in February 2022.
She sits at a table and practices writing her name at a school in the eighth district of the Hungarian capital. She has freckles on her face, a bright smile, and struggles with the letter “k” when writing the surname Farkaš. The classes are run by Taleta, a non-governmental organization founded by two Hungarian women, Silvija Moldovan (Szilvia) and Agnes Pletser, immediately after the war began, with the aim of helping to educate young Roma refugees from the western Ukrainian Transcarpathian region.
Residents of the small city of Krasnystaw, Southeast of Lublin and close to the Ukrainian border, are complaining about Roma refugees who, according to them, are making the city unsafe. Upon closer reading, this boils down to petty theft of food, and small incidents.
The thefts indicate that they probably do not have enough money to survive otherwise, as Poland does not really provide much help to refugees.
An article and video on Roma refugees from the Ukraine. According to the article, there could be as many as 100’000 of them. This number is probably too high an estimate. The article focuses on Roma from Transcarpathian Ukraine in the Czech Republic, a problematic issue.
The German Greens are against the proposal to qualify Moldova and Georgia as “secure states”, a measure that would allow Germany a speedy dispatching of refugees from those countries back in their homeland.
An editorial on the discrimination faced by Roma refugees form the Ukraine in Western Europe.
While some of the statements on the Roma situation in Ukraine are not fully correct, the fact is that many Roma faced discrimination while fleeing.
According to this article in the Bulgarian press, about half of the Roma in the Ukraine are currently refugees and about a quarter of them have a relative fighting on the front. This statement was made by Ned’s Korunovska, of the European Institute for Art and Culture.
These numbers seem somewhat stretched. We doubt that many of the Roma from Transcarpathian Ukraine and Bessarabia fled. Some did, we can testify to this. This will need to be followed up.
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