Category Archives: Posts in English

Analyse und Kritik des Antiziganismus, Antiziganismus von Rechts, Antiziganistische Übergriffe, Fundstücke, Posts in English, Ungarn

A new attack on a Roma family from Bögöt

The home of a Romani family has been attacked last weekend in a village called Bögöt located in the county of Vas, west of Hungary. The household was shared with a Romani widow and her five children. The windows and the fences of the house have been broken into pieces; firecrackers were also thrown onto the house. As a result of the fear caused by the incident, the family had to flee the village; they now live with a relative. Before the attack, Roma and non-Roma were living peacefully together in Bögöt. This is the first case that such an incident has occurred in the county of Vas.

These incidents should not be viewed as isolated events. Instead, they are part of a growing transnational extreme right wing movement that is sweeping through Central and Eastern Europe, building up inter-organizational networks and common strategies for spreading terror among local Roma populations. This is a regional problem, and as such it requires strong unified regional action.

This growing movement represents a clear threat to regional peace and security and indicates an acute need of a consolidated, regional approach to tackle the issue; this should involve increased cooperation between governments, police forces, judicial institutions and national security agencies.

The mainstream media plays a key role in perpetuating the cycle of prejudice, misunderstanding and exclusion. Media informs social attitudes and defines perceptions of the self and the other. Although, it has the power to promote inclusion and understanding, the European mainstream press strongly confirms anti-Roma sentiments; reinforcing harmful stereotypes, overemphasizing Roma crime, presenting Roma as passive victims and depicting Roma as exotic and “Other.”

This consistently negative and unbalanced media representation reinforces anti-tziganism. Recent EU polling suggests that a majority of Europeans believe that Roma are detrimental to society. Even well intentioned news sources often present stereotypical and abstract portraits of Roma. Distanced reporting creates a culture of fear and a sense of emergency which leads to prejudice, discrimination and increasing violence.

Source: Romedia Foundation
Date: 20.11.2013

Analyse und Kritik des Antiziganismus, Antiziganismus von Rechts, Antiziganistische Übergriffe, Bulgarien, Fundstücke, Posts in English

Bulgarian Roma Muster Self-Defense Teams in Answer to Far-Right Militias

A Roma organization in Bulgaria has created a platform for self-defense groups in response to reports of far-right vigilante patrols roaming the streats of Bulgarian capital Sofia. The platform is called Organization of Minorities for Defense against Violence (OMON), and has been created by the National Center for the Development of Roma in Bulgaria, reports Dnevnik.bg. Last ween far-right nationalist Bulgarian National Union leader Boyan Rasate announced the creation of militias, allegedly to secure the peace of Sofia residents. Rasate denied any racist motivations behind the move. At the same time, in the past weeks, there has been an increased number of cases of violence against immigrants and Bulgarians of minority ethnicity. Dnevnik.bg reports that the Roma Center plans involves „safeguarding Roma neighborhoods and places where public order is being disturbed.“ Center director Petko Asenov said that he has talked to Sofia police head Ivaylo Spiridonov and Vice-Chief Prosecutor Asya Petrova regarding rising tensions. He added that the platform is intended to include Roma people from across Bulgaria. Increased tensions and an apparent stirring up of the far-right – including the founding of a new, Neo-Nazi-like party – led to an antifascist rally in Bulgarian capital Sofia last Sunday. At the same time, activists warned that a planned new law regarding the Bulgarian police could pave the way to formalizing the vigilante militias.

Source: Novinite.com
Date: 21.11.2013

Antiziganistische Übergriffe, Antiziganistische Klischees, Fundstücke, Irland, Posts in English, Staatlicher Antiziganismus

Tallaght Roma girl’s family victims of racist attacks

The windows at the front of the family’s home have had to be fortified because of people in the area throwing bricks at the house.

THE ROMA FAMILY at the centre of a controversy involving a little blonde girl, who was taken from their house in Tallaght, Dublin, this week, have previously been victims of racist attacks in their area, it has emerged. DNA tests carried out today have proven that the 7-year-old is related to the family. She was taken into the care of the HSE on Monday after being removed from the house during a garda operation. A source close to the family told TheJournal.ie that the family, who have been living at the house for five years, have been targeted several times. Windows at the front of the house have been broken with bricks twice and the landlord has had to install fortified glass . It is understood that several verbal threats have also been made against the family over the last number of years. “There’s a bad feeling in general in Tallaght towards the Roma community,” a source said. “The whole area is a melting pot of mixed cultures so there has been racial tension and that has led to violence and threats.” The source said there have been a number of attacks on “other properties with people from the Roma community”. “In some cases it’s broken windows and there’s been fire damage as well,” they said.

‘Witch hunt’

This new information comes in the wake of a warning from groups representing immigrants and the Roma community about a ‘witch hunt’ against them. Pavee Point said today that there is a “real danger” that State action based solely on the basis of appearance could create the conditions for an increase in racism and discrimination against the Roma community living in this country. It also emerged today that a two-year-old boy, who had been removed from the home of a Roma family in Athlone because of questions around his identity, has now been returned to them. The head of the Immigrant Council Denise Charlton said the Government needs to make clear what procedures are in place in public services to stop racial profiling from happening. “Any targeting of an individual community for such scrutiny, on the basis of unfounded perceptions that they are more likely than others to break the law, is wrong,” she said. Commenting today on the incidents with the two children, Minister For Justice Alan Shatter said it is important that “no group or minority community is singled out for unwarranted attention, or, indeed, suspicion in relation to child protection issues.”

Source: The Journal
Date: 23.10.2013

Abschiebung und Asyl, Fundstücke, Großbritanien, Posts in English

UK has one of largest Roma populations in Western Europe with 200,000 living here

Contradicts Government claims ‚relatively few‘ had set up home here
Most of the Roma citizens thought to have arrived in the last ten years
200,000 figure is four times 49,000 estimated four years ago in a report
Some 183,000 have set up home in England as well as 3,000 in Scotland

Britain has one of the largest Roma populations in Western Europe – with about 200,000 living here – says an authoritative report. The study contradicts Government claims that ‘relatively few Roma citizens’ had set up home in this country. Most are thought to have arrived in the last ten years. The 200,000 figure is four times the 49,000 estimated just four years ago in a report prepared for the Department of Children School and Families. Some 183,000 have set up home in England, with 3,000 in Scotland, 900 in Wales, and 500 in Northern Ireland. The findings come amid concerns about how many more migrants will arrive when restrictions on workers from Romania and Bulgaria are relaxed in January. It is claimed most of the migrants have arrived since a number of eastern European countries, including Slovakia and the Czech Republic, joined the European Union in 2004. The latest study, conducted by the University of Salford and seen by Channel 4 News, concluded the migrant Roma population in Britain was ‘significant’, increasing, and that 200,000 was almost certainly a ‘conservative estimate’. As well as London, Yorkshire, the North West and the Midlands are identified as areas where large numbers of Roma live. According to Channel 4 News, Sheffield has seen a big influx of Roma families over the last ten years. A decade ago, only one or two were living in the Page Hall area of the city. There are now several hundred families – with more arriving. Families of ten children are not uncommon. Miroslav Sandor, who works in a local advice centre in Sheffield for Roma people, came to the UK in 2004 when Slovakia joined the EU. He was drawn by the chance to send his children to school and college. He told the programme: ‘We came here for a better life, having a job, having education for my children.’ Miroslav ‘Bob’ Sandor, his son, said: ‘In Slovakia when you go to school they don’t let you go to college. If you Roma they just don’t care about you.’ Gulnaz Hussain, manager of an advice centre for migrants in Sheffield, said: ‘I don’t think we could accommodate more people arriving. I think it’s taken its toll in terms of numbers and houses that are available.’ When asked if Roma people had been welcomed, she responded: ‘There’s been some increased tension since their arrival.’ One of the local residents, Jane Howarth, who is not Roma but has taken it upon herself to organise street patrols around Page Hall, said she often saw ‘hoards of people, Roma, standing on street corners, drinking, eating, chucking all their rubbish’. Dr Philip Brown, one of the authors of the study, said: ‘A few years ago we didn’t really understand the number of migrant Roma in the UK.’ The Council of Europe estimates the population across the whole continent is somewhere above 11million – with 6million in the EU. Of those, around two million live in Romania. Spain has the largest Roma population in Western Europe, with 750,000, followed by France with 400,000.

Source: Daily Mail Online
Date: 30.10.2013

Frankreich, Fundstücke, Posts in English, Staatlicher Antiziganismus

Largest Roma camp dismantled in Marseille

After dawn, local police forces dismantled the largest Roma camp of the City of Marseille (Around 453 people). In fact, the last Gypsies families left the camp yesterday night. The bulldozers wrecked their shelters made of plywoods, tyres and cartons

Wedged between brand new residential buildings and the railway, the wasteland of Capelette hosts despite herself a Roma camp, the largest of the city. The first Roma families settled here there almost two years ago. The tents have gradually given way to shelters in the style of the worst slums that we used to see in developing countries. However here we are in Marseille, France’s second city, and right next to the new roofed football stadium. The contrast is striking.

Cohabitation with the neighborhood does not come without problems and complaints to the police are deposited as clashes with Roma are numerous. They are accused of damage, theft, insults. The land on which they sat is a private land owner without action the Police cannot act. Roma families are living is disastrous health conditions, and NGO are calling for a solution outside of this slum.

It is only on the 31st of July, 2013 that the Court ordered the eviction of some 300 families who occupied the wasteland and few hours after dawn on the 21st of October 2013, several bulldozers came to destroy the huts deserted by their occupants the day before.

There are about 1,500 people from Romani origin in Marseille.

Source and pictures: Demotix
Date: 21.10.2013

Fundstücke, Posts in English, Slowakei, Staatlicher Antiziganismus

Slumdogs of Slovakia: This city was given £51million when it was named European capital of culture… so why are Roma children still living in such horrifying squalor?

Kosice, Slovakia, won £50million to improve country’s infrastructure when it was named 2013 Capital of Culture
Heartbreaking pictures show the suburb of Lunik IX where around 8,000 Slovakian Roma live, many of them children
Destitute images show children covered in dirt playing in rubbish and the filthy apartments they live in
Many live without gas, water or electricity in the area – where almost 100 per cent of its residents are unemployed

These heartbreaking pictures show the squalid conditions that thousands of Roma children are forced to call home in the city of Kosice, Slovakia.
The city, the largest in eastern Slovakia, received £51million when it was named the European Capital of Culture 2013 alongside Marseille, France. The money is to be invested into the city’s infrastructure, creative industries and tourism.
However, in the suburb of Lunik IX around 8,000 Slovakian Roma, most of them children, live in squalor in one of the world’s worst slums.
In many of the pictures, piles of rubbish can be see surrounding the blocks of flats where the children live.
With little else to do, some – often covered in dirt and wearing clothes full of holes, play among the filth.
Graffiti can be seen scrawled across the walls with dirty washing and old furniture left on many balconies.
Some reports have suggested that the level of rubbish in the area has led to many water sources turning toxic – a problem that is beginning to affect the rest of the city and not just the Roma suburb.
Almost all of the apartments are without running water as a majority of those living there cannot afford to pay water bills.
There is one tap in the area when residents may collect running water. It is monitored by police.
In one image a little girl can be seen sat alone on a flight of stairs, presumably leading to her family’s apartment. In another, a boy can be seen smoking while in others young men swear at the camera.
Luník IX, located in the west of the city, is home to the largest Roma community in Slovakia.
The 106-hectre suburb was originally built for 2,500, but its population is thought to be around three times that figure. The area become so densely overpopulated after another nearby Roma suburb was demolished in 1979.
A vast majority, if not all of the area’s inhabitants are unemployed with many living without gas and electric as they are unable to pay bills.
Common illnesses such as hepatitis, head lice, diarrhoea, scabies and meningitis are common in the suburb – which has one elementary school and a kindergarten.
The Roma ghetto is a stark contrast to the rest of the city – which is situated on the river Hornád, at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains.
The city boasts three universities, various dioceses, and many museums, galleries, and theaters, but it was once known for its heavy industry. To this day, the largest employer in Kosice is the steel mill.
The town, population of 240,000, has extensive railway connections and an international airport – which are set to be improved with the European Capital of Culture grant.
In 2008 Košice won the competition to hold the prestigious title European Capital of Culture 2013.
A total transformation of Košice from a centre of heavy industry to a postindustrial city with creative potential and new cultural infrastructure is expected to take place with the £51million grant.
Project leaders hope to bring a strong creative economy to the city – merging industry with arts, design, media, architecture, music and film production, IT technologies, creative tourism.

Source and pictures: Daily Mail Online
Date: 17.11.2013

Analyse und Kritik des Antiziganismus, Antiziganismus auf politischer Ebene, Antiziganismus von Rechts, Antiziganistische Übergriffe, Antiziganistische Klischees, Fundstücke, Griechenland, Irland, Italien, Posts in English, Serbien

Roma fears heighten after child abduction reports

Reports of child abductions by Roma in Greece and Ireland is causing anxiety about a vigilante backlash against Europe’s most discriminated minority.

Dezideriu Gergely, executive director of the Budapest-based European Roma Rights Centre, told this website on Friday (25 October) that a far-right group in Serbia tried to take the law into its own hands in the past few days.

“During the weekend, there was an attempt by skinheads in Serbia to enter into a Roma community and take a child which had whiter skin than the family,” he said. The Roma couple did not hand over the child, despite the threats. Gergely pointed out that some couples have mixed families with children of differing skin colours and complexions.

The Serb case is said to stem from negative media reports after a couple in Greece allegedly abducted a girl thought to be between the age of five or six. Greek police on Monday had the couple arrested after DNA checks confirmed the child was not their biological daughter. The girl’s biological mother is Bulgarian. The mother said she gave the jailed couple the child because of poverty, reports BBC.

Authorities in Ireland this week removed two blond children from two different families with darker skin complexions. A two-year old boy and a seven-year old girl were later returned after DNA checks confirmed their biological links with the distraught parents. “There is a fear and anxiety whether the police will come, whether the state authorities will come, and check anyone and look at their children,” said Gergely of the two cases in Ireland. Alan Shatter, Ireland’s minister of interior, on Thursday said Gardai, Ireland’s organised crime unit group, and Ireland’s Health Service, would be investigated for their conduct after taking the children.

He said a report would be due out within two weeks time. Shatter told RTE’s Morning Ireland the case in Greece might have influenced the Irish authorities to take the children because their skin colour is lighter than their parents. Dublin-based Roma-rights group Pavee Point has requested an independent inquiry. “We are concerned that these type of incidents will fuel racism against Roma,” said the NGO on their website. Pavee Point has questioned the motives of the authorities.

But in Italy, the far-right Northern League party has also jumped on the anti-Roma bandwagon. Italian media report that MP Gianluca Buonanno, a Northern League politician, submitted a request to the Italian ministry of interior to verify the identities of children in all local Roma communities. “In many instances, we have reminded politicians not to scapegoat a population because extremists will see it as a green light,” said a contact at the human rights watchdog, the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. Last week, the Il Mattino newspaper, reported that a baby in the arms of a Roma woman in Naples suffered injuries from an apparent acid attack.

Source: EU Observer
Date: 25.10.2013

Analyse und Kritik des Antiziganismus, Antiziganistische Klischees, Fundstücke, Posts in English, Tschechien

Romea.cz reports Facebook group „Gypsies to the Gas Chambers“, Facebook sees no problem

The Czech administrators of the Facebook social networking site must really like racism. How else can their refusal to close a group named „Gypsies to the Gas Chambers“ („Cíkáni do plynu“) be explained? News server EuroZprávy.cz was the first to report on the issue. Another Facebook group making fun of racism was promptly taken down by the Czech administrators after complaints. The full name of the group is „Gypsies to the Gas Chambers! Fags!“ („Cikáni do plynu !buzeranti!“). It is set up as a „closed“ group with only six members. EuroZprávy.cz reports that some of the members are publishing openly racist commentaries. User „Wilson Gabriela“ is one of them.

Her own Facebook page includes the following commentary (our translation): „I don’t tar you all with the same brush I don’t mind gypsies but their behavior that’s why I don’t tar them all with the same brush but I would throw them all into one giant gas chamber, I know that what I am writing here is what everyone thinks but no one says out loud…“ When the page was reported by other users for its hate speech and symbols, administrators refused to remove it. According to the administrators, the material does not violate Facebook’s rules. News server Romea.cz also reported the page as hateful and received the following response: „You have reported the page „Cikáni do plynu !buzeranti!“ for containing hate speech or symbols. The group has not been removed.“

Facebook has, on the other hand, repeatedly removed the pages of the satirical group „Stop Czechs“ („Stop Čechům“). That group attempted to use humor to point out the dangers of racism and xenophobia by showing Czechs what it would be like to be a minority, but the administrators believe that page is an example of racism and xenophobia.

Source: Romea.cz
Date: 07.10.2013

Analyse und Kritik des Antiziganismus, Fundstücke, Posts in English, Tschechien

Czech political parties agree pig farm on Roma Holocaust site should be removed

The topic of journalist Martin Veselovský’s fourth election special for Czech Radio on news server Rozhlas.cz was racism and relations toward minorities in the Czech Republic. Among the topics that were discussed was the possible removal of the pig farm located on the site of the former concentration camp for Romani people at Lety by Písek.

The candidates participating in the discussion were Martin Komárek of ANO 2011, Jan Bartošek of the Christian Democrats (KDU-ČSL), Soňa Marková of the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSČM), Helena Langšádlová of TOP 09, Jaroslav Foldyna of the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD), Yvona Legierská of the Citizen’s Rights Party for Zeman (SPOZ) and Drahomíra Miklošová of the Civic Democratic Party (ODS). During the debate the invited representatives of these political movements and parties managed to reach an unusual level of agreement on more than one point.

When asked whether they would ultimately support the purchase and removal of the pig farm at Lety by Písek and the construction of a memorial to the Roma Holocaust there using government money should they be elected to the lower house, all of those participating in the debate said they would. They also all agreed that such a decision would have to be taken on the basis of expert evaluations and negotiations with the owners of the pig farm to determine a reasonable purchase price.

„Yes… if the purchase price would be humane and not usurious, and if private organizations would also participate in building the memorial. I think we could raise money from private sponsors,“ said Komárek (ANO 2011).

Jan Bartošek (KDU-ČSL) also mentioned the essential historical context regarding the operation of the concentration camp for Romani people at Lety. „One thing is significant, namely, that the concentration camp at Lety was not run by the Germans, but by the Czechs. That means our nation bears a share of responsibility for what went on there,“ Bartošek emphasized.

„What we are fighting today is the result of that tragic history,“ responded Langšádlová (TOP 09).

The candidates also agreed, for example, that the problem in Czech society is less of a racial one than a social one and should be addressed as such. They also said they would adopt ceilings for the amount of state housing benefits provided to the indigent.

ODS would set the ceiling at CZK 1 000 per bed per month in the residential hotels. Communist Soňa Marková said it would not work to address the issue so strictly. „Here the point is that this shouldn’t become a business, but that people should be provided social housing so they do not have to live in ghettos and residential hotels,“ Marková (KSČM) said. Yvona Legierská (SPOZ) pointed out that the Czech Republic already has a social housing concept. „Look at the Concept for Roma Integration 2010 – 2013, approved by the previous government. If we were to properly implement it, we would only have half of these problems today,“ Legierská said.

Martin Komárek (ANO 2011) believes the newly elected lower house will have to resolve social housing. „The parties here have approved a law that makes it possible to traffic in poverty and for crooks to rob the state. That’s the law that makes it possible to charge CZK 10 000 per month per bed in a residential hotel. That law is evidently bad, it’s contemptible, and we must, during the first session of the new lower house, combine our forces to propose a law that will make this impossible,“ Komárek emphasized.

The candidates most agreed with one another on the topic of stopping loan-sharking, which was raised by Bartošek (KDU-ČSL). „We want to set a ceiling on the cost of the annual percentage rate (APR) of 20 per cent, including all fees. That means any contracts that are concluded beyond that framework would be considered invalid and not reclaimable. We view loan-sharking as tax evasion, which means that those who operate such businesses would be criminally prosecuted,“ Bartošek said.

Tightening up loan conditions would even be supported by Miklošová (ODS). „I believe it would definitely be appropriate for the possible interest rate to have a ceiling, because even though I cannot remember what it was like during the First Republic, I am informed that there was such a ceiling back then and that everything above it was considered a felony,“ she said.

TOP 09 has a solution as well. Langšádlová (TOP 09) said there is a need to augment the criminal code, which does define loan-sharking, but no one has ever been convicted of it, according to her. „What I would like to expand is the felony crime of usury by corporations, because very often this usury is committed by legal entities,“ Langšádlová pointed out. Foldyna (ČSSD) would focus not only on interest rates or the APR, but also on other aspects of loan contracts. He praised the fact that all of the candidates agreed on this point. „We would have to define this further during a second reading [of a bill], but we can see here that loan-sharking is a big problem now and we must deal with it,“ Foldyna.

Source: Romea.cz
Date: 05.10.2013

Antiziganismus auf politischer Ebene, Antiziganismus von Rechts, Fundstücke, Posts in English, Tschechien

Czech Republic: Three simultaneous neo-Nazi demonstrations in Krupka, Prague and Vítkov

Approximately 100 right-wing extremists participated in a demonstration on St. Wenceslas Day that was convened by neo-Nazis in Prague. Small groups of ultra-right radicals gathered in the lower section of Wenceslas Square before marching to the Edvard Beneš embankment of the Vltava river.

In the town of Krupka, approximately 350 Romani people and their supporters took to streets to counter-protest, and as of 18:15 CET the neo-Nazis were no longer anywhere to be seen. In Vítkov, the leader of the right-wing extremist Workers‘ Social Justice Party (Dělnická strana sociální spravedlnosti – DSSS) Tomáš Vandas made his speeches to an empty square.

Approximately 350 opponents of the neo-Nazis gathered in Krupka shortly after 14:30 today. A large number of them were local Roma.

Anti-fascists from Germany had also traveled to Krupka to support the Romani community. The first conflict took place when neo-Nazis began distributing fliers for the right-wing extremist DSSS to the Roma in an effort to provoke them.

„About 70 anti-fascists from Germany responded to the provocation and police were barely able to prevent a physical clash. DSSS newspapers and posters ended up shredded on the ground. The neo-Nazis also lost their DSSS flag,“ a correspondent with news server Romea.cz reported from the scene just before 15:00 CET.

Neo-Nazis from the „Czech Lions“ (České lvi) group had announced the assembly for 14:00, but none turned out a that time. News server Romea.cz learned that the gathering had been postponed until 17:00, at which time not more than 5 people attended.

„We saw approximately 5 neo-Nazis on Mariánské Square,“ our correspondent on the scene in Krupka reported shortly after 17:00, adding that local Romani residents had already dispersed and gone home. „The situation here is completely calm.“ Continue reading Czech Republic: Three simultaneous neo-Nazi demonstrations in Krupka, Prague and Vítkov →