Liberty has warned that the Government’s new criminal justice legislation risks stifling dissent, criminalising Gypsy and Traveller communities, and subjecting marginalised communities to profiling and even more disproportionate policing.

The Policing, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, announced today (9 March), introduces a raft of eye-catching changes to the criminal justice system. These changes include dangerous measures including restrictions on protest, new stop and search powers, a “Prevent-style” duty on knife crime, and a move to criminalise trespass.

Gracie Bradley, Liberty Director, said: “It’s a primary duty of Government to ensure that our communities are safe and free. But parts of this Bill will facilitate discrimination and undermine protest, which is the lifeblood of a healthy democracy. We should all be able to stand up for what we believe in, yet these proposals would give the police yet more powers to clamp down on protest. They risk stifling dissent and making it harder for us to hold the powerful to account.

“If enacted, these proposals would expose already marginalised communities to profiling and disproportionate police powers through the expansion of stop and search, and Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities may face increased police enforcement through the criminalisation of trespass.

“While we are still in the grip of a pandemic that has changed all our lives and handed enormous powers to the Government, it is shocking that this executive has chosen now to launch such a broad assault on our rights under the guise of safer communities.

“We must reject the politics of division that the Government is proposing through this Bill, and protect each other and our ability to stand up to power.”

Source: Liberty

Date: 21.03.2021

Source: Georg Eckert Institute

Date: 06.04.2020

A FORMER Yorkshire mayor faces being reported to the police over alleged racism and anti-Muslim comments on social media.

Councillor Heather Venter, who was mayor of Driffield in 2013 and 2014, supported controversial posts on Twitter, but denies harbouring racist views. One tweet she ‘liked’ said: “Shouldn’t employ Muslims. Nothing but trouble.” Another tweeted on April 30, read: “Sadly, looks like Romania’s Gypsy begger/pickpockets will b [sic] soon replaced by African Muslims.” She also tweeted a link to an article by a neo-Nazi website that read: “White South Africans march in London against white genocide.” The controversy comes after a website accused the councillor of racism for her Twitter activity.George McManus of the Beverley and Holderness Labour Party. said the tweets ‘liked’ by Coun Venter were “designed to cause offence”. He added: “There’s no room for remarks like these in a civilised society. I am particularly concerned that this person occupies a position of authority as a councillor and that this impacts badly on the reputation of the good people of Driffield. They are in my opinion designed to cause offence and to cause racial and religious hatred.
“I intend to ask Humberside Police to consider whether or not they constitute an offence under section 127(1) of the 2003 Communications Act.” Coun Venter has denied the allegation and said: “I can’t understand it because I’m not racist.” She told The Yorkshire Post she could not remember the tweet about employing Muslims, and said: “I just can’t understand how I would have favourited it. I can’t remember doing that. I like Muslims. I’m pro Palestinian for God’s sake.” But she defended the tweet about Romanians. She said: “It’s happening. It doesn’t mean I don’t like them. Yes they are coming, it’s a fact. You have to see things as they are. Certainly there’s no malice behind it.” On the South African tweet, she said: “I lived in South Africa. There was a protest, a march in London, about white genocide, because farmers are getting murdered every week.” Coujn Venter has 59,800 likes and says Twitter had been her “lifeline” since her serious illness, especially last couple of months when she had been housebound.
She added: “It beggars belief I have 59,800 likes – doesn’t it make you think it is a concerted effort to get at me?” She said she was being called a Nazi on Facebook: “It’s all over Facebook apparently. It said I was a Nazi and I should be made to resign. I could ask the police whether it is an offence that someone local has said I am a Nazi. It’s a two way thing. I could be accusing them of libel, assassination of character. I just find it all pathetic.” The former mayor moved back to the UK in 1998, having lived in South Africa for a number of years with her South African husband. During her time there, she said she took pity on out-of-work African men, by providing them with food. She added: “When you see a man and all they’ve got is their pride – they’ve got nothing, absolutely nothing – and for a man to come and stand at your gate and beg for food, you feel for them. “My gardener would stand every day waiting to be picked up for work and if they didn’t work, they didn’t eat. “I used to give him chicken and stuff like that.” And when asked about her ‘liking’ a Tweet that attributed knife crime in London to black people, she said: “That’s a sad undeniable fact. That doesn’t mean that I don’t like blacks. I have a lot of black friends.” Claire Binnington, clerk of Driffield Town Council: “We’ve made the person who made us aware of this to contact standards at East Riding Council, which is the procedure for people who have complaints. She does make clear on Twitter that she speaks for herself and not the town council.”

Source: Yorkshire Post
Date: 30.06.2016

In Czech society, stereotypes usually put ethnic Roma on the wrong side of the law. In Great Britain, Romani people are offered unsuspected opportunities, and so it is that Dana Ghosh, a Romani woman from the Czech Republic, is in her police uniform for the first time today.

In the English town of Peterborough, Ghosh is expected to mainly serve the large Romani community. Czech Radio reports that her ethnic origin was not important at all when she applied for the prestigious job.

„I liked the idea. I thought about it a lot and ultimately I decided to go for it. The whole process lasted about five months. I learned I got the job a couple of weeks ago. I’m enthusiastic about it,“ says Ghosh, who is originally from the town of Opava.

Ghosh, who is now a mother of two, left the Czech Republic with her parents and siblings because of racial attacks in 1998 and relocated to Britain. Now the delicate, elegant young woman in her third year of college has become a community police officer.

„I didn’t say I was a Romani woman during the interview, but I remembered that I speak Romani fluently,“ Ghosh says. Reportedly no one even asked about her ethnic origin.

„I can imagine being useful in that field. I definitely will do my best to help the community and people here as much as possible. Probably the most troubled area, in my opinion, will be Pakistani and Romani relations,“ she says.

Another Peterborough police officer of Romani origin from the Czech Republic, a man, is already working in that area. „I am looking forward to having a colleague here who will be able to shoulder part of my obligations and my work. I will support her however I can so that everyone in the community knows who she is. I believe she really has great potential to change the way the community runs, for people to trust her,“ says officer Petr Torák (pictured above).

„For Dana this is really a chance to become a role model, not just for the Romani community, but generally for the members of all national minorities. When a police officer is directly a member of the community she serves, there’s no language barrier, that’s a big victory,“ says experienced police officer Jim Davies, who also chairs the Gypsy Roma Traveller Police Association.

Source: Romea.cz
Date: 29.09.2014

Inquiry launched after Gypsy officer says he was subjected to years of racial abuse

One of Britain’s largest police forces has launched a review into how it deals with Gypsies, Roma and Travellers after being accused of institutional racism by one of its own officers. Thames Valley Police said yesterday that it had reached a settlement with Constable Jim Davies, an English Romany Gypsy who claimed at an employment tribunal earlier this year that he had been subjected to years of racial abuse. PC Davies, 52, from Brackley, Northamptonshire, also alleged that he had witnessed other officers referring to Romany Gypsies as “pikeys”. His experiences led him to found Britain’s first Gypsy Roma Traveller Police Association (GRTPA), which launched in March and now has 55 members. In a statement, Thames Valley Police said it would “not tolerate any form of discrimination towards any minority group”. It added: “In light of the issues and observations raised by PC Davies, a review of how Thames Valley Police engages with Gypsy Roma Traveller communities will be commenced. “This review will be conducted independently and will involve a review of existing policies and procedures to ensure Thames Valley Police serves all of its communities and ensures that any racial stereotyping or outdated practices and procedures are amended or removed.” PC Davies, who has worked for Thames Valley Police for 20 years and is currently in the fixed penalty unit, told The Independent he had never sought any financial compensation from the force because his only motivation was to “change things and make things better”. Although he was unable to talk about the specifics of his own case for legal reasons, PC Davies said he had set up the new association because of the lack of a “support network” for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller police officers, who he said faced “open discrimination”. “It’s not something that’s peculiar to the police, it’s there in all walks of life and all occupations,” he said. “Various members tell a similar story: it’s very rare for someone to challenge a colleague for racist behaviour or racist comments if those comments apply to Gypsies and Travellers. And that makes for a very difficult working environment.”

He added that there was a tendency for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller police officers to hide their ethnicity because they were frightened about receiving abuse. “I and other members of the association have had officers come up to us and be quite adamant that they do not want us to disclose their ethnicity to anybody else, and that’s a real worry. The only reason that someone would not want to disclose their ethnicity in their place of work is because they don’t feel safe doing so.” PC Davies said that he hoped the GRTPA would help to foster better relations between the police and members of the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities, as well as challenging the negative stereotype that “we’re all criminals”. “If Gypsy and Traveller communities around the country can see that some of their own people are police officers, then hopefully that’ll give them more confidence in the police and take away the fear factor.” The Traveller Movement welcomed the independent review but added that the case of PC Davies showed “serious failings” had taken place in the past. Mike Doherty, a spokesman for the charity, said: “Police forces, like any other British institution, are not immune from institutionalised discrimination towards the UK’s Romany Gypsy and Traveller ethnic minorities and it is good to see Thames Valley grasping the nettle and initiating a review into both how it polices these communities and how its officers from those communities are treated.

Source: The Independent
Date: 16.06.2014

The people of this peaceful village at the foot of the Slovak mountains vented their anger by electing as their regional governor a man who calls his Roma compatriots „parasites“ and admires a wartime figure who collaborated with the Nazis. Marian Kotleba’s landslide victory in November exposed pent-up frustration over unemployment and neglect by mainstream parties, together with a deep-seated animosity towards the Roma, factors that have built support for extremist politicians in Slovakia and elsewhere in central Europe. Still, many were shocked when Kotleba – a former high school teacher who looks back fondly on the Slovak state that was allied with the Nazis during World War Two – came from nowhere to win 77 percent of the vote in Balog, 260 km (160 miles) northeast of Bratislava, the capital. Overall, in the central Slovak region of Banska Bystrica, he won 55 percent, enough to become regional governor and a further sign that some European voters frustrated with the economic crisis were willing to take chances with extremists. Nationalist sentiment is increasingly directed against Slovakia’s Roma, a minority of 400,000 in the country of 5.4 million who live on the fringes of society, suffering from poverty, poor education and limited job prospects. In some settlements they have no access to running water. With European Union expansion opening borders, deprived regions have seen waves of departures, including some of Europe’s 10 million Roma, to countries such as Canada and Britain, where immigration has again become a hot issue. British Prime Minister David Cameron has imposed new regulations on migrants amid fears of an influx of poor people from Romania and Bulgaria, for whom restrictions on free movement within the EU expired at the end of December. Kotleba, who did not respond to requests to be interviewed for this article, ran on a platform that derided „Gypsy parasites“. Some Roma, whose forebears arrived in central Europe from India in the Middle Ages, see Gypsy as a derogatory term. Kotleba once ran a party that was disbanded for racial hatred. The 36-year-old has organized marches in military-style uniforms and praised Jozef Tiso, the wartime leader of Nazi-allied Slovakia. His party’s newsletters talk about „desperate villages and towns suffering from crime and terror from Gypsy extremists“. „We voted for him out of desperation,“ said Martina Strorcova, a pub owner in Cierny Balog. She says local people on low incomes often accuse Roma of drawing welfare benefits while not being willing to work. „It is bad to see how some of us toil and others take social support,“ Strorcova said. The pub in the village centre only has two customers at lunchtime, and Strorcova says business is tough. People who work at the local iron works bring home just 430 euros ($590) a month. The Slovak minimum wage is 337 euros a month, less than 2 euros an hour, against the equivalent of 7.50 euros in Britain. Cierny Balog’s 5,000 inhabitants include about 700 out of work during the winter, said social worker Lubomira Pancikova. „The problem is unemployment, not only among the Roma but overall. Young people run away, men and women in their most productive years,“ Pancikova said. The official jobless rate in the region is 18.1 percent, although in some areas it tops 30 percent. It is the second worst in the country and far above the national average of 13.7 percent. Kotleba promises to create jobs through public works schemes, setting up public companies and farms. „He wants to give normal people, and the Roma, a pick-axe in their hands and make them work,“ said Ivana Galusova, who voted for Kotleba. In fact, Kotleba may not be able to do much. He will be isolated in a regional assembly dominated by Smer, the leftist party of Prime Minister Robert Fico.

TENSION AROUND EASTERN EUROPE

In some places, tension has been high between the Roma and the rest of the population. The European Commissioner for education, Androulla Vassiliou, called on authorities in Kosice in August to tear down a wall separating a Roma neighborhood from the rest of the eastern Slovak city – a means of segregation used by local authorities in several places in eastern Europe. In Hungary, a court jailed four neo-Nazis for killing members of Roma families in a spree of racist violence in 2008 and 2009. The gang killed six Roma in carefully planned attacks. Around the region, anti-Roma sentiment has helped the far-right to win votes. In Hungary, the Jobbik party has vilified the Roma, in addition to employing anti-Semitic language. In Romania, mayor Catalin Chereches of the northern town of Baia Mare scored more than 86 percent in local elections in 2012 after relocating Roma families – and building a concrete wall around their neighborhood. Some members of Bulgaria’s nationalist Attack party, which has seats in parliament, wear swastikas on their shirts and make Nazi salutes at rallies. Czech riot police had to intervene repeatedly this year to halt marches by hundreds of people on Roma neighborhoods, in places where communities have swollen due to a government housing subsidy program. In Balog, where several hundred Roma live in impoverished settlements around the village, there are no open clashes. But Jozef Bartos, a 20-year-old Roma, fears Kotleba’s victory might lead to trouble. „We do not have problems here … but we have to be ready to protect ourselves, be prepared if someone comes at us,“ said Bartos, who shares a two-room shack with no running water or sewerage with his wife, 18-month-old baby and parents. He said he can make 17 euros a day, but only finds work in a few days a month.

UNEVEN SUCCESS

Slovakia is a post-communist success story, having joined the euro in 2009 and going through the global economic crisis almost unscathed. Gross domestic product per head is at 76 percent of the EU average, up from 54 percent a decade ago. But economic development, based mainly on car exports, has been uneven. Mountain ranges separate the richer west, connected to Austria and the Czech Republic, from the poorer centre and east, traditionally home to most Slovak Roma. „Companies focused on heavy industry and arms manufacture there collapsed and there has been no substitution,“ said sociologist Lubomir Faltan of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. Successive governments on right and left have done little to address social and ethnic problems, he said, and the economic crisis has made things worse. „The Roma community has a double disadvantage. They do not have any qualifications, they can be used only for manual work, if they are willing to work,“ he said. „There are villages where unemployment is 80 percent, and Roma populations with almost 100 percent unemployment.“ Communities with high unemployment, Roma or majority Slovak, are prone to crime – mostly petty theft, Faltan said. The long-term unemployed often become resigned and settle for handouts and casual work. The government has been running inclusion programs, some with the help of EU money. „This is a warning sign. People and politicians in this country must realize that it is no longer possible to hide away from the Roma problem,“ Peter Pollak, the Slovak government representative for the Roma community, told local media. The government is responding to public resentment over welfare abuse with legislation that will deduct any court fines from handouts and also link the payments to participation in public works programs. A plan drafted last year also calls for tying welfare payments to children’s school attendance, and for expanding pre-school education. Prime Minister Fico, whose incumbent candidate Vladimir Manka lost the election to Kotleba, however blamed the media and the centre-right parties for Kotleba’s victory. „I do not feel responsibility for the result,“ he told a news conference. „For you, anything that is against Smer is good.“ The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC), a Hungarian-based non-governmental advocacy group, said the Roma in Slovakia are discriminated against in all aspects of life. „They are likely to be forcibly evicted from their homes, face segregated or low quality education and find it much harder to get work,“ said ERRC’s Marek Szilvasi. But Kotleba’s victory merely reflected what a lot of the political class had been thinking in Slovakia, he said. ($1 = 0.7257 euros)

Source: Reuters
Date: 05.01.2014

Politicians are inflaming community tensions with anti-Roma rhetoric, an alliance of Tory, Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs has warned as Britain opens its borders to Bulgarian and Romanian workers.

MPs on the all-parliamentary party group on Gypsies, Travellers and Roma sounded the alarm about provocative language as a prominent Tory council leader suggested some Roma are planning to come to the UK to „pickpocket and aggressively beg“ following the end of labour market controls on the two eastern European countries.

On Tuesday, ahead of the restrictions expiring at midnight, Philippa Roe, of Westminster city council, blamed Roma in central London for already causing „a massive amount of disruption and low-level crime“, including defecating on doorsteps. Speaking on the BBC, she called for more limits on benefits for new arrivals from EU countries and claimed there would be rising costs in council tax unless the government offers financial help.

„I know the vast majority of Romanians and Bulgarians planning to come to the UK are planning to work and contribute to society here,“ she said. „But I think the fear that everybody faces is those that come to Britain and either fail to find jobs and therefore fall back on our welfare system, or those who deliberately come here to pickpocket and aggressively beg.

„We have seen in the past 18 months particularly the Roma in central London causing a massive amount of disruption and low-level crime which has made a very negative impact on our communities. It’s this minority one is really concerned about but it is this minority that has this really big impact.“

Roma make up a tiny proportion of the population of Romania and Bulgaria but some politicians have concentrated their warnings about the end of transitional controls on the potential for more to enter Britain. This week an adviser to the Romanian prime minister hit back at scare stories, arguing millionaire bankers have caused more harm to society than Roma beggars.

Amid escalating rhetoric, the MPs on the all-party parliamentary group called for politicians to engage in „calm dialogue with local communities and an end to deliberately inflammatory language intended to stoke up community tension“.

Andrew George, a Lib Dem MP who is chairman of the group, said these communities were suffering „collateral damage“ and extra discrimination amid all the furore.

„What these groups are saying is that they are suffering even more,“ he told the Guardian. „They already exist in an environment of deep prejudice and community tension anyway. This is just setting them back after making some progress in some of the areas in which they have improved their relations. There is collateral damage going on for the wider traveller community.“

The group includes David Blunkett, the former Labour home secretary, Sir Peter Bottomley, a former employment minister, and Kate Green, the shadow equalities minister. Separately, Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, also warned that the government’s „last-minute confusion and heightened rhetoric is alarming rather than reassuring, and risks fuelling hostility too“.

Ukip and the right of the Tory party have been warning for months about the potential for a public backlash if new arrivals put pressure on squeezed public services and housing. Ukip leader Nigel Farage argues London is already suffering a „Romanian crime wave“ and accused the coalition of preparing to welcome „foreign criminal gangs“ from new EU member states.

Under pressure from dozens of MPs and local activists within his party, David Cameron has brought in new rules that stop EU immigrants getting benefits for at least three months after arriving and limit their claims to six months.

Despite the political frenzy, experts are not predicting a surge in immigrants from the two eastern European countries on the scale of migration from Poland in the 2000s. Professor John Salt, an academic at the University College London migration research unit, said advance air bookings from Bulgaria to the UK for the first three months of 2014 were down on last year and no carrier from the country had increased the number of flights.

Despite reports of tickets for packed flights leaving the region costing upwards of £3,000, many airlines were offering seats on Tuesday to fly to the UK at between £135 and £250 for departure on New Year’s Day. Eurolines, the main international bus operator at Victoria coach station in London, said it did not have any arrivals scheduled from Romania or Bulgaria until the morning of 2 January.

Sergiu Calauz, chief executive of the Romanian recruitment company Work Experience, said he had not seen an increase in the last few months of Romanians wanting to travel to the UK for work purposes. „Honestly, it’s still the same,“ he said. With unemployment just under UK levels, skilled Romanians with good English were not generally out of a job, Calauz said.

Comparative figures from the International Labour Organisation from mid 2013 show Romania had a lower rate of unemployment (7.5%) than the UK (7.6%). Bulgaria’s unemployment stood at 12.9%.

Asked whether the appetite amongst Romanians to migrate had increased because of the change in labour laws, he said: „It’s too early [to tell] … but Romanians are kind of conservatives. What I can tell you is the great people, the best people, those who are confident enough in their skills, they are abroad already. It’s not like 1 January will wake them up.“

Source: novinite.org
Date: 01.01.2014

Tensions between local people and Roma migrants could escalate into rioting unless action is taken to improve integration, David Blunkett has warned.

The former home secretary fears a repeat of race riots that hit northern cities in 2001. His concerns centre on the Page Hall area of Sheffield, where Roma migrants from Slovakia have set up home. But he also accused the government of „burying their head in the sand“ over the scale of Roma settlement in the UK. In an interview with BBC Radio Sheffield, he said the Roma community had to make more of an effort to fit in with British culture. „We have got to change the behaviour and the culture of the incoming community, the Roma community, because there’s going to be an explosion otherwise. We all know that.“

‚Downtrodden village‘

The Sheffield Brightside MP said he feared a repeat of the violence that erupted between Asian and white youths in Bradford and other cities in 2001. „If everything exploded, if things went really wrong, the community would obviously be devastated. We saw this in Bradford, Burnley and Oldham all those years ago when I first became home secretary. We saw that the community itself were the losers.“ He called on the Roma community in Page Hall to change aspects of their „behaviour“, such as congregating on the streets on summer evenings and dumping litter, which he said was „aggravating“ local people. „We’ve got to be tough and robust in saying to people you are not in a downtrodden village or woodland, because many of them don’t even live in areas where there are toilets or refuse collection facilities. You are not there any more, you are here – and you’ve got to adhere to our standards, and to our way of behaving, and if you do then you’ll get a welcome and people will support you.“ Mr Blunkett said the local population in Page Hall, which he said was made up of people with „Pakistani backgrounds, Somali, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Yemeni and traditional white working class“ also had to make an effort to reach out to the Roma community. „By all means express how you feel but do something with us. Join the people who are doing something about it,“ he told them. The MP said „phenomenal“ progress was being made by community groups to improve integration in Page Hall but the government’s decision to axe Labour’s Migration Impact Fund – a £50m pot for councils to ease pressure on housing, schools and hospitals – was hampering these efforts. „We are not asking for a lot of money. We are just asking for a bit of understanding from government. A bit of interest. The government’s just not interested. It’s absolutely pivotal to holding this community together.“

‚Targeted funds‘

And he accused the government of „burying their head in the sand“ over the size of the Roma community living in the UK, which he said was revealed in a recent study by Salford University. „They [the government] have been saying there is less than 50,000 Roma in England. The Salford study shows that at a very conservative estimate, there’s over 200,000. That they constitute a very large minority, with real problems.“ He suggested the government’s refusal to officially acknowledge the scale of Roma settlement in the UK was preventing it from accessing EU funds to aid integration – a point echoed by Sylvia Ingmire, chief executive of the Roma Support Group charity. Ms Ingmire also backed Mr Blunkett’s call for the restoration of government funds to boost local services in areas affected by high immigration – but she also stressed the reasons why Roma families chose to settle in the UK. „With the growth of state harassment and neo-Nazi violence in East/Central Europe, Roma families have settled in the UK, contributing economically and culturally. „More recent Roma migrants, however, carry the double burden of both a tough, discriminatory environment in countries of origin, and the winds of austerity and hostility in the UK. „We acknowledge that these pressures are also faced by many longer-established residents. „Up until 2011, the availability of targeted funds from government helped in both strengthening local services, and making them more responsive to immediate needs of the newly arrived and the longer-term residents.“ A government spokesman said the coalition had cut net migration „by a third“ and was attempting to „address the ‚pull‘ factors that previously led to unsustainable impacts on this country“.

‚Courage‘

The spokesman added: „Salford University figures should be treated with extreme caution, as they are estimates based on replies from only a third of local authorities and rely on anecdotal information. „The Migration Impacts Fund was a two-year scheme created by the last administration. „Coalition ministers did not view the scheme as particularly effective or value for money, especially given the need to tackle the budget deficit inherited by the government.“ Mr Blunkett’s intervention was praised by UKIP leader Nigel Farage, who campaigns against the ending of some work restrictions for migrants from Romania and Bulgaria, both countries with significant Roma populations. He said: „Mr Blunkett should be admired for the courage he has shown by speaking so plainly on this issue. Of course, the type of language he has used I would have been utterly condemned for using. „The fact that he is talking of the significant difficulties with the Roma population already in his constituency should be taken seriously by the likes of Cameron, Clegg and Miliband. „My question is if they won’t listen to the dangers of opening the door to Romania and Bulgaria next year when UKIP speak out on it, will they listen to David Blunkett? I certainly hope so.“ Mr Blunkett later issued a statement distancing himself from Mr Farage’s endorsement, stressing he had been talking about the need for better integration.

Source: BBC News
Date: 12.11.2013

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

Am 2. August 2013 ereigneten sich Proteste von organisierten Roma gegen die antiromanistischen Zustände in Europa im Zentrum Londons. Weiterhin fand im Hyde Park eine Gedenkveranstaltung für die Opfer des Porajmos (der Völkermord an den Sinti und Roma durch die Nazis) statt. Ab 15 Uhr fand eine Protestkundgebung vor den Botschaften der Tschechischen Republik und der der Slowakei statt, bei denen die Autor_innen dieses Artikels allerdings nicht anwesend waren.

Um 17 Uhr versammelten sich dann ungefähr vierzig Personen vor dem Hyde Park Holocaust Memorial, um der Gedenkveranstaltung für die Opfer des Porajmos beizuwohnen. Die Veranstaltung war von der Roma-Organisation 8th April Movement organisiert worden. Deren Aktivist Grattan Puxon war auch einer der Redner auf der Kundgebung. Er erinnerte an die Verfolgung und Deportation der Sinti und Roma in der Nazi-Zeit und betonte, dass der Antiromanismus auch heute noch ein großes Problem sei.

Eine weitere Rede eines Historikers erinnerte an die Ermordung der Sinti und Roma im Konzentrationslager Auschwitz in der Nacht vom 2. auf den 3. August 1944. Er verwies vor allem auch darauf, dass die Sinti und Roma damals Widerstand gegen ihre Ermordung geleistet hatten und nicht ¨wie die Schafe zum Schlachthof¨ gelaufen seien. Er erwähnte auch, wie bereits zurvor Grattan Puxon, dass Antiromanismus heutzutage dazu verhelfe, Wahlen zu gewinnen, also mehrheitsfähig sei und dass diesem Problem nur durch Erinnerung an die Geschichte beizukommen sei. Hierzu sei es nicht nur notwendig, dass Sinti und Roma die Stimme erheben, sondern auch, dass ihnen zugehört werde.

Weitere Redner kamen von anderen Roma-Organisationen, unter anderen aus Tschechien, sowie von einer antirassistischen Organisation aus Hiroshima, die auch an die Bombardierung Hiroshimas gedachte. Außerdem wurde auf die gewaltsame Räumung der Travellers in Dale Farm verwiesen (mehr Informationen: www.travellersolidarity.org).

Ein Redner von der Jewish Socialist Group sprach den von Antiromanismus betroffenen seine Solidarität aus und kritisierte, dass auf dem Gedenkstein für die Opfer des Holocaust in Hyde Park nur die jüdischen Opfer erwähnt werden. Dies müsse sich ändern.

Um 18 Uhr 30 versammelten sich schließlich nocheinmal bis zu 45 Personen vor der französischen Botschaft, die südlich des Hyde Park gelegen ist. Dort wurde einerseits gegen die Räumung eines Roma Camps im Zentrum Londons durch die Polizei in der letzten Woche protestiert, zum anderen gegen die große Anzahl an vergleichbaren Räumungen und Abschiebungen von Roma in Frankreich protestiert. Die Demonstrierenden stellten sich mit Transparenten in den Eingang der Botschaft, wurden allerdings nach einiger Zeit von der Polizei aufgefordert, den Eingangsbereich zu verlassen.

Die Anwesenden formierten sich nun zu einem Demonstrationszug, der mit Unterstützung durch eine Samba Band zur Marble Arch, dem Ort des geräumten Roma Camps, zog und sich dort auflöste.

Informationen zur Räumung des Camps an der Marble Arch und Aufruf zu den heutigen Protesten:

London: Roma Solidarity

london_tourists (Die Autor_innen dieses Artikels sind weiße Aktivist_innen aus antifaschistischen Zusammenhängen aus Deutschland, die zufällig an den Protesten teilnahmen und andere Menschen auf diesem Wege über das Geschehene informieren möchten)

Quelle: Indymedia
Stand: 03.08.2013