European states are failing to curb and in some cases even fuelling discrimination, intimidation and violence against Roma, Amnesty International said on International Roma Day on 8 April.
Colm O’Gorman, Executive Director, Amnesty International Ireland said “There has been a marked rise in the frequency of anti-Roma violence in Europe in the last few years. The response to this alarming trend has been woefully inadequate. It is unacceptable that in modern-day Europe some Roma communities live under the constant threat of violence and pogrom-like attacks,”
“All too often we see European leaders pander to the prejudices fuelling anti-Roma violence by branding Roma as anti-social and unwelcome.
“While generally condemning the most blatant examples of anti-Roma violence, authorities have been reluctant to acknowledge its extent and slow to combat it. For its part, the European Union has been reluctant to challenge member states on all too evident systemic discrimination against Roma.”
Amnesty International’s report, We ask for justice”: Europe’s failure to protect Roma from racist violence, examines hate motivated violence and harassment perpetrated against Roma by officials and ordinary citizens in the Czech Republic, France and Greece, illustrating the organization’s concerns across the continent.
“On many occasions law enforcement agencies are failing to prevent racist attacks and ensure that hate motives are properly investigated and perpetrators brought to justice. The fact that racist attitudes remain entrenched in many police forces is more often denied than addressed,” said Colm O’Gorman.
Governments across Europe fail the Roma in multiple ways. Discrimination, forced evictions, segregation and sub-standard education are the norm in many countries.
“The European Union has legislative powers at its disposal to ensure that discriminatory violence, and discrimination more generally, are addressed. However, the European Commission, which is responsible for overseeing the application of EU laws in the member states, has to date failed to take clear and decisive action to address discrimination and violence against Roma in member states,” said Colm O’Gorman
Amnesty International calls on national governments and the European Union to commit, visibly and wholeheartedly, to eradicating the scourge of anti-Roma discrimination, intolerance and violence across the region.
Czech Republic
Throughout the summer and autumn of 2013, Czech far-right groups staged series of anti-Roma protests in dozens of towns and cities across the country. The protests meant systematic harassment of Romani communities.
Between June and October 2013, far-right extremists joined by the local residents held regular marches through the city of Èeské Budìjovice to a housing estate following a conflict at a children’s playground between Roma and non-Roma adults.
Štefan, a Romani man told Amnesty International: “Some people do not realise that [during the demonstrations, the Roma] have to stay at one place, that children… are afraid. This lasts the whole day and leaves trauma… Nobody deserves to experience something like this. People experienced this during the war and I think that in the year 2013, in the 21st century, we don’t have to experience it again.”
France
Having fled discrimination in their countries, many of the 20,000 Roma in France live in informal settlements where they rarely have access to basic services, such as water and sanitation. They are often forcibly evicted from their shelters, harassed by the police or other citizens and sometimes attacked.
On the evening of 22 November 2011, the police went to the informal settlement next to the church of St. Martin d’Arenc in Marseille with the aim of forcibly evicting the 10 Roma families who lived there. They allegedly sprayed tear gas inside the tents where children were sleeping and then destroyed the tents and other personal belongings.
R. was beaten up by the police. He said: “I wanted to run away but I couldn’t see anything, I just saw a gate in front of me, I tried to reach out to it but as soon as I approached it, I just had the feeling that my leg broke and then I don’t remember anything else. R. underwent surgery for a fractured thighbone and spent six months in a rehabilitation centre.
Roma migrants in Marseille do not generally report cases of harassment and violence because of lack of trust in the police or fear of further victimisation. S., a Roma social worker who used to live in an informal settlement, said: “Roma people are really scared of the police; I usually take kids to the hospital for medical treatments and they are afraid whenever they see the police on our way”.
Greece
The estimated 250,000 to 350,000 Roma living in Greece have been at the receiving end of discriminatory treatment for generations.
During 2012 and 2013 a series of pogrom-like attacks against a Roma community took place in Etoliko, a village in western Greece.
Irini told Amnesty International her experience of an attack on 4 January 2013 when approximately 70 individuals threw Molotov cocktails, stones and wooden planks at their homes: “When I saw them coming, I grabbed my children and locked us up in the house. My children were crying, screaming… I was frightened. Looking out of the window I knew most of them, we grew up together. They threw a glass bottle from the window and set the house on fire.”
Six houses and four cars were fire-bombed or damaged by the attackers that day. Several Roma told Amnesty International that they felt betrayed by the police. One said: “I could see just two policemen from inside the house… They were just staring and asking people to stop. They did nothing more than this”.
For more detail on the situation for Roma communities in the Czech Republic, France and Greece click on the links below.
Czech Republic: “Maybe this is what it was like during Hitler’s era”
France: “They said they would have killed us if we stayed”
Greece: “My children are afraid, they don’t want to return to the house”