To counterbalance the accusations that Roma refugees from Ukraine abuse the system and are actually not Ukrainians, we did an interview in one of the leading newspapers in German speaking Swiss press.
To counterbalance the accusations that Roma refugees from Ukraine abuse the system and are actually not Ukrainians, we did a Radio interview.
Another two articles in the Swiss press about Roma refugees from the Ukraine who “abuse” the system and are “most probably” not from the Ukraine. All because the Swiss seem to be oblivious that Western Ukraine is Hungarian speaking …
Two really bad articles in a formerly good newspaper, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. Here, the use the fact that there are several Roma families from the Transcarpathian Ukraine asking for refugee status in Switzerland, to ask for the blanket approval of Ukrainian refugees to be revoked.
They make statements about false passports etc.
Proofs are not there…
In Switzerland, there is currently an influx of Roma refugees from the Ukraine, mostly from the Transcarpathian region. We have seen many cases, and they unfortunately come from segregated settlements, often as large families (8 children etc.). They mostly speak only Hungarian and a limited amount of Ukrainian, and seldom Romanes.
The article in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung is totally unacceptable. They effectively say they are not really Ukrainian, without any proof, and even put up a picture of Uzhgorod, maybe part of Greater Hungary for the editors of this paper. They insinuate that they have all Hungarian passports, which could be the case, as Hungarian speakers from outside Hungary have been granted passports by Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister. However, one of the pre-requisite is to be able to read and write (and not to be Roma), which does not apply in most of the cases here in Switzerland.
In addition, these Roma, even though they are not fluent, speak Russian and Ukrainian. Which cannot be said of Hungarians.
A newly released statistic shows that the Ukrainians are definitively no longer Russian friendly. They are at the bottom of the list of people they willing to deal with. They are even less popular than Africans and Roma…
The story of a Romano ethnographer and researcher, Janusz Panchenko from Kakhovka, the initiator of the creation of a Roma space in Kakhovka. Before the full-scale invasion, Janusz was writing a dissertation, documenting the memories of elderly Holocaust survivors, and teaching at a school for Roma children.
Even though he was pro-Ukrainian, he remained in the occupied territories. Until the Russian started looking at NGOs.
Sad.
Natalia Yuzypchuk, a Ukrainian Romni, fled to Warsaw from Lutsk, Ukraine, seeking safety for her grandchildren. A year and a half later, Natalia is the driving force behind the Roma Community Centre in Warsaw, run by the W Stroną Dialogu Foundation and supported by UNICEF.
Since the first months of the war, the situation of Roma refugees has been much worse than that of other groups of refugees from Ukraine. Roma refugee families face many barriers in accessing basic services due to administrative obstacles and lack of documents. This leads to bigger obstacles, including: in access to financial support, health care, education, housing and the labour market. Many people also tell us that they have faced overt discrimination as a result of prejudice and stereotypes.
For the International Day of Migrants, Radio Liberty presented a documentary project “In the eyes of God we are all people” – a film about Roma refugees who found refuge from the war in Moldova, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
A Czech Court sentenced two Roma who took part in a mass fight in Pardubice between Roma and Ukrainians at the beginning of this year’s holidays to 150 and 200 hours of community service. The Ukrainian suspect is not yet sentenced but risks up to two years of prison.
Russia has long been recruiting prisoners, criminals and its own ethnic minorities from different regions into the war against Ukraine. Now they have begun to “engage” other categories of the population – Roma and migrants.
For example, on December 12, in the Leningrad region, 30 to 50 Roma were taken to military registration and enlistment offices. The head of the Sitting Rus’ charity foundation, Olga Romanova, told Channel 24 about this, noting that they would subsequently be sent to the front.
According to the article, roughly 25’000 Roma from Ukraine fled to Poland, and these were overwhelmingly illiterate. This probably means they missed quite of few Roma who did not conform to the stereotypes.
A book on this exodus, called “The War of our Times” was published.
Joanna Talewicz-Kwiatkowska, with her foundation, tried for several months to find an apartment for a family of Roma refugees from Ukraine. No chance. – I never thought I would see such a moment – says the activist with regret. And he emphasizes that the Roma are treated worse than others, even though they are also fleeing from the war.
Some Czech Roma are protesting about the release of the Ukrainian who killed a Rom in Brno recently. He is no longer in jail but on bail. The release of the murderer from the Brno case is a slap in the face of the Roma. “One less gypsy, so what?” according to Romani leader Tancoš.
These confrontations between Ukrainian refugees and Roma have not been good. Some Roma sided with some extreme right parties to complain about Ukrainian refugees. Our attitude is: Let’s see what justice says about this case. It is definitively bad that the suspect was released on bail, with the judge expressing doubt about this being a murder.
The Fundacja w Stronę Dialogu [Towards Dialogue Foundation] has published a monitoring report for 2022-2023 entitled “They are not refugees, but travelers” on the situation of Roma refugees in the Podkarpackie Voivodeship. The material presented in the report was collected by the foundation’s team during regular local visits in the Podkarpackie Voivodeship, mainly in Przemyśl, conducted from March 2022 to May 2023.
According to the report, in addition to unequal treatment, Roma face widespread anti-Gypsyism, and the challenges they face when fleeing are particularly acute. As a result of the outbreak of war, assistance for this group took on a new dimension: substandard support in reception points and places of collective accommodation.
The Uzhhorod City Council violates the right of internally displaced Roma to housing and social protection. The resettled Roma sent an appeal to the Office of the Ombudsman of Ukraine, claiming discrimination on the basis of ethnicity. In the appeal, representatives of the national minority complain that the Uzhhorod City Council violates their rights to housing and social protection.
The applicants with their families and minor children are internally displaced citizens, so they currently live in the premises of the local multidisciplinary lyceum in Uzhgorod, in the Zakarpattia region. One of the displaced women has a newborn baby.
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 “.
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.
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