Annual Report Discrimination 2015

Discrimination and the Roma community, 2015

In 2014 the European Commission initiated legal action (a so-called infringement procedure) against the Czech

Republic for discrimination in its segregation of Roma children in schools. The European Commission put a

process in motion which, while not directly solving the problem, could help bring the case before the Czech

courts and exert political and public pressure resulting from the multiple claims of ethnic discrimination in the

educational system.

A year and a half ago several civil society organisations denounced the worrisome events that have been occur-

ring for years in the Czech Republic where Roma children (in many cases) are segregated in schools for children

with mental disabilities, schools for Roma only or in classes where the academic level is noticeably below that

of the standard classes.

The European Commission complied with its duty to enforce the laws and treaties of the European Union and to

hold Member Countries accountable for failing to uphold the law or respect human rights.

The European Roma Policy Coalition—ERPC (of which the Fundación Secretariado Gitano is a member) and or-

ganisations such as Amnesty International have expressed their satisfaction with this announcement by the

European Commission.

IRELAND.

Public anti-Roma march.

The city of Waterford, Ireland was the site of an anti-Roma incident in October 2014. Many Roma families, includ-

ing small children and elderly persons, had to be evacuated from their homes in that city where over 60 people

had gathered in the street brandishing anti-Roma banners.

Windows and the door of one of the homes were also reportedly smashed. According to the Doras Luimni

association, the Roma community is stereotyped as an organised criminal group “due to the alleged criminal

activity of a small number of people”.

The organisation has launched an anti-rumour campaign throughout the region whose aim is to “offset the

negative perception people have of immigrants and minority groups such as that caused by the stereotypes

perpetuated against the Roma community”.

HUNGARY.

Forced expulsions.

A local government decree was passed in June 2014 to expel Roma from Miskolk, an important city in Eastern

Hungary, in clear violation of EU law.

The Miskolc city government amended a decree on social housing in order to expel Roma from the city in what

is a new and worrisome chapter in the history of this government which has already tried to exclude its Roma

citizens.

The decree provided for the demolition of the city’s poorest social housing inhabited almost exclusively by

Roma. The decree openly discriminates against people living in social housing. The government made very little

effort to disguise its intention in expelling the Roma community from this neighbourhood.

Since 2009 the Miskolc authorities have been implementing an exclusion and stigmatisation policy against the

Roma population. Public statements made by the chief of police regarding “Roma criminality” and by the mayor

who expressed his wish to rid the city of ‘anti-social’ Roma, were precursors to this current attempt to expel

Roma from the city. Also under this local government law, authorities have conducted 45 property inspections

in the span of ten months in Roma neighbourhoods. Roma tenants felt humiliated, especially because these

measures were not taken in other parts of the city.

As a result, over 400 families have had to leave their homes and move to other parts of Hungary or go abroad.