Germany has resumed the deportation of rejected refugees. This is particularly controversial in the case of Moldova. Most of the people from Moldova requesting asylum in Germany are Roma, and there, they are discriminated against.
Bishop of Kielce Jan Piotrowski in the company of the Latin Metropolitan of Lviv, Archbishop Mieczysław Mokrzycki visited the parish of St. John Paul II in Lviv and the nearly hundred refugees who live there.
Despite the language barrier, Bishop Piotrowski also talked with Roma children studying in the parish school “Alav” (meaning “word”) organized for them, which, together with the parish priest, Fr. Grzegorz Draus, they sang their own original parish anthem and in Polish “Zielony Mosteczek”. It was a testimony to the success of students who speak Russian and Ukrainian, as well as Hungarian or Romani, on a daily basis.
3’200 people from Moldova will be expelled from Germany back into their home country at the end of the month. Most of them are Roma. These Roma protested over the weekend.
“We want to stay here. We don’t want to be deported and come back every three months,” said a young mother. Like most of those who gathered on Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz in Mitte on Saturday afternoon, the Romni comes from the Republic of Moldova. The woman with the microphone looked desperate: “They treat us like dogs.”
The umbrella organization RomanoNet protested against the statement of the government commissioner for human rights, Klára Šimáčková Laurenčíková, who stated that the Czech Republic managed the influx of refugees from Ukraine last year. According to 15 Roma and pro-Roma organizations that RomanoNet brings together, the Czech Republic has failed to help Roma refugees from Ukraine.
“From the point of view of Roma civil society, the state as a whole has failed in providing assistance to people with a different skin colour. Many of them have been forced to return to a country where the war conflict is still ongoing, or to go to the West, where the colour of the skin is not a decisive factor in the provision of aid. In view of the above, it cannot be claimed that the situation has been managed or solved,” says the statement of the RomanoNet organization, which was provided to the news server Romea.cz by its director Michal Miko.
A reportage of Roma from the Donetsk region who were displaced by the war and who settled in Vinnytsia region (Central Ukraine). They bought houses and were allowed to use some others in the village of Potoky. All in all 68 Roma moved there.
An article about all the others (i.e. non-Serbian) minorities in Kosovo, and mostly on Roma. The situation is still not good, with unemployment, discrimination, and emigration.
A rochade among refugees in Germany. A group of Ukrainian refugees was moved away from their current home to make space for Hungarian speaking Roma refugees from Transcarpathian Ukraine who were in a temporary camp. The original refugees will be put in better homes, apparently, rather than in that particular large home they were in.
A bit of a mess, and the Germans admit their communication was not optimal.
A large group of war refugees cannot be accommodated in the reception desk at the railway station in Przemyśl in Eastern Poland, and the time of stay, at the Humanitarian Aid Centre limited to 48 hours, is too short for them to find another place of accommodation or decide on their further journey. The problem mainly affects the Roma. Only people with a valid train ticket can enter the accommodation at the reception desk at the PKP railway station in Przemyśl. This was criticised by the Ombudsman.
There is an ongoing controversy in Berlin currently where the Senate wants to send 600 Moldovan refugees back to Moldova before Christmas to make room for Ukrainian refugees. Some of those 600 are Roma so this is not good.
The Church World Service is launching a program aimed at helping Roma refugees from the Ukraine in Moldova.
At the North Elementary School “Am Reitbahnsee” in Neubrandenburg in North Eastern Germany, two preparatory classes with Ukrainian students are treated differently: While some are taught in the school building, a two-room apartment was rented for around 20 children – three kilometres away from the school. They belong to the Roma minority. This way they have no contact with other students. In addition, the apartment has safety deficiencies. Those responsible deny the allegations of discrimination.
Bad.
Ukrainian Roma are taking legal action after an attack of Roma refugees in Chisinau. The Roma refugees were sprayed with tear gas by security personnel. They complained to the EU Council on Preventing and Eliminating Discrimination and Ensuring Equality. A criminal complaint against the assailants has also been initiated ex officio by the public prosecutor. The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) will represent the Romani litigants in both proceedings.
During the Warsaw Human Dimension Conference organised by the OSCE, the plight of Ukrainian Roma both inside and outside of the country was thematised. Ukrainian Roma NOGs attended the conference, most notably the Chirikli Romnja NGO.
The German State of Baden-Wuerttemberg supports the integration of Roma displaced from the Ukraine. All offers for refugees should also be available to members of the Roma minority and other Romani-speaking people.
Apart from the fact that few non-Roma speak Romanes (they probably wanted to include Sinti), this is welcome.
An opinion and presentation of the situation of Roma in the Ukraine and about those who fled.
An article on a refugee “camp” for Roma from the Ukraine in Brno. It is a makeshift camp to say the least, is a makeshift one. They are confronted with racism and with the refusal from the Czech to help Roma from the Ukraine, claiming they have Hungarian citizenship. Racism can be seen from statements such as the ones of Jan Polák, head of the social welfare department: “They are used to living a nomadic way of life.” They say they don’t need anything, because “it suits them to be somewhere on the lawn”.
Testimonies from Ukrainian Roma refugees in Europe. The article focuses on Moldova and Romania. What is good, is that this is being reported in the Ukrainian press, which usually tends only to report on stealing and begging Roma. Hope this will continue.
An article in Spanish on the situation of Roma in the Ukraine. It is based on the visit of the Sinto MEP Romeo Franz in the Ukraine. “The situation of Roma in Ukraine is unbearable, I couldn’t believe that Roma live in such conditions in Europe,” said German Roma MEP Romeo Franz, one of the participants in the delegation that visited Ukraine, at a press conference. It is possible that soe of the Roma IDPs will suffer hunger this winter in the Ukraine.
Another article on the situation of Ukrainian Roma IDPs and refugees, based on the visit of the German Federal Commissioner for Sinti and Roma in the Ukraine.
Well, it is not good it you are a Rom. A reportage in the Czech Republic, in Moldova and in Romania. It is not better in Hungary, that we know…
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