More than 70,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands left homeless by the civil war in Syria, spreading misery among all of the nation’s ethnic and religious groups. But one ethnic minority has undergone more than its share of suffering — both during the current fighting and for centuries preceding it — and few outside of Syria know much about it. The group is known as the Dom and it has been a presence in Syria since before the Ottoman Empire. Often mislabeled by the pejorative “gypsies,” the Dom get their name from their language, Domari, means “man.” They have joined the exodus of Christian, Muslim and other Syrians refugees into Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and beyond. But wherever they go, they generally face a less than warm welcome. As one source told VOA, „They are the most despised people in the Middle East.“

Who are the Dom?

Misunderstood and complicated, Dom have been present in the Middle East for at least a thousand years. Most information about them is gleaned from their language, Domari, an Indic variation. It is similar to Romani, the language of the European Roma, suggesting their common roots in India. Both Roma and Domari are peppered with words borrowed from other languages, reflecting their history of migration through Iran and elsewhere. Beyond that, little of their origin is known—or agreed upon by scholars. During the Ottoman period, Dom migrated freely throughout the Middle East as “commercial” nomads, providing services to communities wherever they settled. The fall of the Ottoman Empire following World War I led to the formation of nation states with proper borders, which greatly curtailed Dom movements. Locals in Syria, as elsewhere in the region, call the Dom Nawar — a word likely derived from “fire,” referring to their traditional work as blacksmiths. But over the years, the word “Nawar” has evolved into a pejorative, connoting someone who is uneducated and uncivilized. They also differentiate Dom by the region in which they live and the work they perform. In Aleppo and Idlib, the Dom are called Qurbat and work as blacksmiths or untrained dentists. The so-called Riyass live in Homs and Hama, where they sell handicrafts or entertain at parties. Dom women, dubbed Hajiyat, might dance in Damascus nightclubs, beg or tell fortunes.

The numbers

It is almost impossible to estimate Syria’s Dom population, as they often conceal their identity out of fear of being stigmatized. SIL International’s Ethnologue estimates 37,000 Syrian Dom speak Domari, alongside Arabic.But the Syrian newspaper, Kassioun, reported twice that number in 2010. Kemal Vural Tarlan is a photographer, documentarian, writer and activist who focuses, he says, on those who live on the sidelines of society, chiefly Dom and Roma. He also authors the Middle East Gypsies website. He says Dom are viewed as outsiders and intruders, therefore they are almost universally discriminated against. So they often hide their ethnic backgrounds through what they call the skill of “invisibility,” which helps them move into and out of communities. “The official Dom population could be much higher than estimated, because so many Dom describe themselves as Kurdish, Arab or Turkmen,” Tarlan said. Whatever the number, he says more Dom live in Syria than anywhere else in the Middle East.

Dom refugees in Turkey

Turkey has been home to “gypsies” since Byzantine times, and in 2005 the UNHCR estimated a Roma/Dom population of 500,000. Kemal Tarlan has spent much time in recent weeks near the border documenting the influx of Dom from Syria. He believes as many as 10,000 to 20,000 Dom have settled in southern Turkish towns such as Kilis, Gazientep and Şanlıurfa. “İnitially, some were able to register in proper refugee camps,” Tarlan said, “but now they cannot get into camps, because they are full.” Some Dom have gone to live with families in the cities. Those with no place to go live as nomads in tents. Tarlan says they receive little assistance from the government, so in order to survive, they beg or work in the fields. “But the majority are unemployed,” he said, and this has given rise to local tensions. Recently, after citizens of Şanlıurfa started to complain about a rise in petty theft, Turkish authorites dismantled and burned a makeshift tent city. The media referred to the campers as “Syrians.” But Tarlan says most were Dom.

Into Lebanon

With Beirut only about 65 miles away, many Dom from Damascus have fled into Lebanon. Catherine Mourtada is co-founder of Tahaddi (“Challenge”), a non-governmental assistance group that serves Beirut’s underprivileged, many of whom are Dom. “They are excluded from the normal school systems, either because they don’t meet admission requirements or because public schools are full. „So they come to our place,” Mourtada said. Mourtada has seen increasing numbers of Dom from Syria, looking to stay with their Lebanese relatives. “Already, they are very poor, and now they must welcome other very poor members of their family coming from Syria, so it is very hard for them.They are all living in dire conditions,” she said. “They can’t find any work except for recycling things from the garbage dump, like aluminum or iron or cardboard, just to be able to survive.” In some cases, Beirut Dom are forced turn their Syrian relatives away. “So they have to find a room somewhere to rent. They are lucky if they can get a bathroom or running water,” Mourtada said. Because there are no official refugee camps in Lebanon like those built in Jordan and Turkey, Mourtada says Dom have begun to settled in tent cities in the Bekaa Valley.

Into Jordan

In 1999, Amoun Sleem founded the Domari Society of Gypsies, a cultural and educational center in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Shu’fat. Herself a Dom, she says she has first-hand experience with discrimination, cultural marginalization and poverty that most Dom face as a result of illiteracy. “Whenever disaster strikes in the Middle East, no one gives a thought to how it will impact the Dom,” she said. Sleem says she has received word that many Dom refugees are living at or near the Zaatari camp in Mafraq, Jordan. She has been trying to get a permit to visit the camp, but has run into a lot of red tape.In the meantime, she is trying to encourage Jordanian Dom families to host the refugees. “It’s not very easy,” she said, “but if it could happen, it would be a very good thing.”

Source: Voa News
Date: 03.12.2018

In Tarlabaşı, Istanbul’s oldest slum, a tiny community centre offers a crucial place of safety and support for the shunned Syrian Dom community. But as the city gentrifies, there are fears these refugees may become victims once again

On the north-western corner of Istanbul’s famous Taksim Square, a small gang of children dart through the traffic, tapping on car windows and trying to catch the attention of passers-by to sell bottles of water. These Syrian Gypsy children from a community known as the Dom are in many ways the forgotten faces of the Middle East crisis, which has left an estimated 26,000 refugee children homeless across Europe. The Dom speak a separate language which traces back to the Indian subcontinent; even in times of peace they have always existed on the fringes of society, and are used to facing almost universal discrimination.Before war broke out, there were up to 300,000 Dom living in Syria. Now many live on the streets of Istanbul’s ghettos, part of the approximately 366,000 Syrian refugees seeking a new life in the Turkish city. Many reside in Tarlabaşı, Istanbul’s oldest slum. It is just a few streets from the ornate splendour of İstiklal Caddesi, the nearby avenue of sultans that once saw Istanbul dubbed “the Paris of the East”. But life in Tarlabaşı is very different: it has become known as a haven for Istanbul’s minority communities of migrants, Gypsies, transsexuals, prostitutes, and the outcasts of society.

Even here, however, the Dom children are despised. Other Syrian refugees and local Turks refuse to associate with them. When asked why, Ilyas, a shopkeeper who asked for his full name to not be used when speaking about the Dom, simply comments: “It is a prejudice, yes. I can’t explain it though. I just don’t like their complexion.” But one organisation is trying to help. Based in a tiny flat of no more than 70 sq metres, Tarlabaşı Toplum Merkezi (TTM) is a non-profit community centre started a decade ago by Istanbul Bilgi University’s Centre for Migration Research, and initially funded by the European Union. Run by four full-time employees and a small army of volunteer teachers, lawyers and even musicians, it provides educational support, psychological and legal counselling for nearly 5,000 children and 3,000 adults in Tarlabaşı. It exists as a place of safety and comfort; a way out from the deprivation and crime which pervades this sector of Istanbul.

For hundreds of years, Tarlabaşı’s narrow, winding streets were a peaceful home to non-Muslim diplomats and later Greek merchants who served the business district around İstiklal Caddesi. But as religious tensions rose through the mid-20th century, the Turkish government launched organised pogroms targeting non-Muslims in the city – the most notorious of which was the Turkish Kristallnacht of September 1955. In the ensuing violence, homes and shops were looted and destroyed. Over the following decades, those abandoned buildings were gradually filled by Gypsies known locally as “Roman”, and by refugees fleeing the Turkish-Kurdish civil war in the late 1980s. The construction of a six-lane boulevard which segregated the neighbourhood from Istanbul’s wealthy tourist district sealed Tarlabaşı’s fate. “Violence, drug issues and prostitution is definitely more visible here than anywhere else in the city,” says Ebru Ergün, a psychologist who has worked at the centre for the past five years. “The boulevard is one of the causes of that. It intensified the stigma surrounding this area and made it into a slum.”

Many of the children of Tarlabaşı fail to complete primary school before ending up as beggars or labourers, relying on state-run social services that provide little more than free lunches and sacks of coal. The Dom children, though, don’t even make it as far as school. “They live in awful conditions,” says Ceren Suntekin, a social worker at the centre. “They mostly beg or sell things near the tourist districts, and the police are quite violent towards them as they don’t suit the image that Istanbul is trying to create. The Roman mostly collect garbage on the street, sell flowers, or play music at clubs. They struggle to break out of this life because when they go to school, teachers discriminate against them and they don’t have the environment to study in when they come back home.” The TTM centre provides Turkish lessons to children and adults alike, so Tarlabaşı’s many Syrian and Kurdish residents can find jobs, earn a living, or even continue in education. Hasan Kizillar, 19, grew up in the local Roman community but learnt to play the violin, piano and other instruments in the centre’s orchestra. Now he works as a volunteer himself, teaching music to children, while preparing to study finance at Istanbul University. “He came from a very poor family,” Ergün says. “But like many Roman children, he was highly talented. We’re also slowly making progress with persuading families to allow girls to be educated, and running classes on literacy and gender equality.”

Most importantly of all, the centre is a place where those in trouble can seek help. Domestic abuse cases are commonplace in Tarlabaşı, and Ergün describes the centre’s recent attempts to aid a family of migrants where the mother and her two daughters had been beaten and sexually abused by the father for many years. “They were coming to us regularly,” she says. “We tried for a long time to persuade the mother to go to a shelter, and eventually she did. We found her a lawyer and now her husband is arrested and the children are safe. We’ve helped the woman find a job as her husband hadn’t allowed her to work; now she’s no longer dependent, we hope it will be a better life for them.” But this support network may not exist for much longer. Tarlabaşı is undergoing considerable change. Over the past few years, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has outlined an infrastructure agenda worth in the region of $100bn, and Tarlabaşı has been earmarked for urban transformation. Billboards depicting future visions of the neighbourhood – chic young couples strolling past modern apartments, retail outlets and hotels – are strewn outside the many ongoing building projects. Many of the dilapidated 19th-century buildings that have served as homes for Istanbul’s poorest, meanwhile, are rapidly being demolished. When forced out, the inhabitants often receive a fraction of the market price.

Issam Saade, a 51-year-old Kurdish waiter who has lived in Tarlabaşı since the mid-90s, explains that after years of fighting to stay, he was evicted last autumn following a court order. “There is more money coming into Tarlabaşı but not for the people who live here now,” Saade says. Two years ago, Istanbul’s rapidly escalating rents almost saw the TTM centre close down, but with the help of donations from the US, UK, Sweden and Holland, its work has been able to continue – for the moment. “Because of the gentrification process taking place here to attract tourists, the state wants the refugees and migrants who live in Tarlabaşı to move away,” Ergün says. “Many of them have nowhere to go, but the state doesn’t care about that. “They will have to move to wherever they can afford, and when they go, we will have to go too. We hope we can follow them to a new location and continue to help. Our centre is one of the few places where it’s safe for children from these communities to play, and where women can discuss their problems. There’s nowhere else providing that.” And what about the very poorest of all, the Dom children who beg on the streets of Taksim Square, where will they go? “We don’t really know. And I don’t think they know either.”

Source: The Guardian
Date: 03.12.2018

Im Alltag treffen Sinti und Roma häufig auf Vorurteile und Klischees. Auch im Bildungssystem sind sie vielfach Diskriminierungen ausgesetzt und haben schwierigere Startbedingungen. Wie schaffen einige es trotzdem, erfolgreich ihren Weg zu gehen? Der Soziologe Albert Scherr hat Sinti und Roma zu ihren Erfahrungen befragt. Im Interview erläutert er die wichtigsten Ergebnisse.

Für ihre Studie haben Ihre Mitarbeiterin Lena Sachs und Sie 25 junge Sinti und Roma interviewt, die studieren oder Akademiker sind. Mit welchem Ziel?

Wir wollten erfolgreiche Sinti und Roma sichtbarer machen und mehr über ihre Bildungskarrieren wissen. Denn gesellschaftlich sind solche Fälle nahezu „unsichtbar“. Stattdessen wird häufig behauptet, dass Sinti und Roma nur wenig gebildet sind, meist von Sozialleistungen leben und manche keinen festen Wohnsitz haben. Unsere Studie zeigt aber: Zwar verlassen manche früh die Schule oder erreichen keine höheren Bildungsabschlüsse, auch weil sie in Schulen Diskriminierungen erfahren. Andere finden jedoch Wege mit Benachteiligungen und Diskriminierung umzugehen und schaffen es bis an die Hochschulen.

Können Sie uns ein Beispiel aus Ihrer Studie geben?

Wir haben mit einem jungen Mann gesprochen, der mit seiner Familie als Flüchtling aus Mazedonien nach Deutschland gekommen ist. Er und seine Familie waren permanent von der Abschiebung bedroht. Trotz dieser Unsicherheit und fehlenden Zukunftsperspektiven hat er das Abitur gemacht und will jetzt studieren. Vor ein paar Jahren hat er eine Organisation mitgegründet, die sich für die Rechte von Roma einsetzt. Heute geht er offen damit um, dass er Rom ist. Für ihn war das so eine Art „Coming Out“ nach der Schulzeit.

Welche Erfahrungen hat Ihr Interviewpartner in der Schule gemacht?

Die Tatsache, dass er Rom ist, hielt er in der Schule geheim, aus Angst vor Diskriminierung. Bei Fragen nach seinem Aussehen verwies er stets auf seine Herkunft aus Mazedonien. Wie andere auch ging er davon aus, dass Diskriminierung von Migranten weniger gravierend ist als Diskriminierung von Sinti und Roma. Und Studien geben Hinweise darauf, dass diese Befürchtung durchaus berechtigt ist. Fast alle Sinti und Roma in unseren Interviews haben Rassismus im Alltag und in der Schule erlebt. Später wurde er an eine Förderschule verwiesen – aus seiner Sicht die Folge einer Diskriminierung, von der viele Schüler aus migrantischen Familien betroffen sind.

Und wie haben die Befragten den Verlauf des Studiums geschildert?

Sie sind oft die ersten in ihrer Familie, die studieren. Und sie haben häufig mit Schwierigkeiten zu kämpfen, die wir auch von anderen Gruppen von „Bildungspionieren“ kennen. Dazu gehört, dass ihnen und ihren Eltern die „Spielregeln“ fremd sind, die an Hochschulen gelten. Außerdem können ihre Eltern sie oft nicht so gut finanziell unterstützen. Manchmal spielt auch die eigene Familiengeschichte eine Rolle. Die Erfahrungen des Porajmos – des Völkermordes an den Sinti und Roma – und der fortgesetzten Diskriminierung zum Beispiel der deutschen Sinti in der Nachkriegszeit führt in manchen Familien zu Misstrauen gegenüber staatlichen Institutionen, auch gegenüber den Schulen und Hochschulen.

Was unterscheidet Sinti und Roma von anderen benachteiligten Gruppen?

Das lässt sich nicht sicher sagen, da es bislang keine repräsentativen Untersuchungen dazu gibt. Das Einzige, was wir sicher sagen können, ist, dass Sinti und Roma keine homogene Gruppe mit einer einheitlichen Lebensweise sind. Das zeigt sich auch beim Thema Bildung: In einigen Roma-Familien aus Ex-Jugoslawien zum Beispiel gibt es durchaus bereits Akademiker in der Elterngeneration. Für sie ist es nichts Ungewöhnliches, wenn die eigenen Kinder studieren wollen.

Sie schreiben in der Studie von einem „generationellen Aufbruch“. Was bedeutet das?

Wir haben in unseren Interviews junge, selbstbewusste Sinti und Roma kennengelernt, die sich auch kritisch mit bestimmten Traditionen innerhalb der eigenen Minderheit auseinandersetzen. Besonders bei den jungen Frauen ist das spürbar. Sie legen großen Wert darauf, zuerst ihre Bildungskarrieren abzuschließen, bevor sie zum Beispiel eine Familie gründen.

Quelle: Mediendienst Integration
Stand: 24.08.2017

Groundbreaking institute to showcase and promote artistic and cultural contribution of Europe’s 12 million Roma people

As a boy facing bullying and discrimination for his Roma identity in his native Albania, Sead Kazanxhiu said he had harboured a simple dream: “To be considered equal to those around me. It was the same dream as our forefathers,” he said. “To not have to hide our identity in order to survive.”

The 30-year-old visual artist, who trained as a painter at the University of Arts in Tirana, is at the forefront of a groundbreaking institute launched in Berlin on Thursday to showcase and promote the largely invisible artistic and cultural existence of Europe’s estimated 12 million Roma people.

“We’ve been living in Europe for 600 years,” Kazanxhiu said, speaking in Romanes. “Now for the first time we have a place we can call our own and the chance to present the image of who we are, rather than others doing it for us.”

The European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture (Eriac) will be led by Roma artists, activists and scholars. Supported by the German government, the Council of Europe and the philanthropist George Soros’s Open Society Foundation, it will promote Roma culture as well as contribute towards overcoming the deep-rooted hostility and discrimination directed against Roma communities across the continent.

“For hundreds of years, it’s been non-Roma who have monopolised the popular representation of the Roma,” said Timea Junghaus, a Hungarian Roma curator and activist who is the Eriac’s executive director.

“The stereotypical view of us is as a romanticised, sexualised, criminal people. The effect is false and destructive. Now we’re claiming our own right to represent ourselves,” she said. “Self-expression will hopefully challenge these long-held assumptions and prejudices.”

Roma people’s cultural contribution to Europe had been almost completely ignored, she added. Only one of the estimated 10,000 works by Roma artists held in state collections in Europe was on show in a permanent exhibition, she said.

That work, by the contemporary Hungarian painter István Szentandrássy, hangs in the Roma parliament in Budapest. “This gives you an idea of the change that needs to happen,” Junghaus said.

Delaine Le Bas, a cross-disciplinary artist from Worthing, who trained at St Martins School of Art in London and refers to herself as Gypsy, said the main problem many Roma artists faced was exclusion.

“Most Roma art is held in storage, gathering dust in basements of museums,” she said. “Most artists are either ignored altogether or, as Gypsies, we’re visible only in a highly negative way.”

Le Bas, together with her husband artist Damian Le Bas, both of whom are associated with the UK’s Outsider art movement, appeared at the first Roma art pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2007, called Lost in Paradise. Curated by Junghaus, it is regarded as having been a vital step towards the establishment of Eriac.

Damian Le Bas, who draws inspiration in his art – including globes covered in graffiti-like codes – from his own Irish Traveller heritage, said: “We’re treading new ground here in Berlin. It’s a very creative community but we’ve rarely been recognised as proper artists. It’s been more like people loving having Gypsy music at their barbecue parties, just not the Gypsies themselves.”

Malgorzata Mirga-Tas, a Polish painter and sculptor from Czarna Góra in southern Poland, said being part of the institute gave her the support that was lacking in her native Poland, particularly under its nationalist government.

“Poland is a very homogenous country and Roma are seen as something of a threat by many people, because we look different,” she said.

She felt the force of the animosity when a huge wooden sculpture she had made to commemorate 29 Roma – including 22 children from Szczurowa, near her community, who were killed in the Holocaust – was destroyed by vandals. With the help of donations, she is building a new sculpture.

“After something like that, joining together with other Roma from across Europe in a more official way than we’ve ever done strengthens our presence at a difficult time,” she said.

Berlin is seen as an ideal location for the institute, not just because of its geography, but because of its vibrant art scene and its status as a magnet for young Europeans.

The government’s support for the centre and its pledge on Thursday that it will support the institute indefinitely, has been vital for the project to work. Inevitably, the commitment also has much to do with the government’s sense of responsibility towards rebuilding the Roma cultural legacy in Europe. During the Holocaust, an estimated 500,000 European Roma were murdered by the Nazis.

While Germany has long addressed the Jewish Holocaust, recognition of Roma victims has taken far longer. A memorial to murdered Sinti and Roma was finally erected in Berlin in 2012 after years of debate. The city is home to a growing number of Roma from across Europe’s diverse communities.

The Eriac will seek to act as a hub, a meeting point for Roma artists and intellectuals, and as a point of contact for festivals, galleries, museums and other institutions seeking partnerships or materials for exhibitions.

Romani Rose, head of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, has fought for for decades their civil rights, including a long struggle to secure compensation for Holocaust victims from the government. Rose said the Eriac sent a signal to other countries to “treat your Roma as equals”.

He cited what he called the “horrific, inhumane” conditions, in particular in parts of central and eastern Europe but also in Italy and Spain, in which Roma live in ghettos often without amenities including basic plumbing.

According to the European Roma Rights Centre, an international public interest organisation that fights anti-Romani racism, estimates that about 60% of Roma dwellings in Europe do not have running water. About 12% live in temporary shelters such as tents or shacks, and more than half live in areas with mud tracks instead of paved roads.

Segregation in the education system, frequent forced evictions, discrimination, including racial profiling and ill-treatment by the police, are ubiquitous features in the lives of many European Roma.

Addressing an audience of dignitaries, Kazanxhiu, the Albanian artist, said Roma had finally recognised they had a valuable contribution to make to the political discourse, “to show people you can reach out and embrace other cultures like we’ve done without losing your own culture or identity”.

Source: The Guardian
Date: 14.06.2017

Am Sonnabend protestierten Roma auch auf dem Kiez gegen Abschiebungen. In den Herkunftsländern erwarten sie Elendsquartiere.

500 Menschen haben am Sonnabend für einen Abschiebestopp und ein Bleiberecht für alle Roma demonstriert. Dazu aufgerufen hatte die Gruppe „Romano Jekipe Ano Hamburg“ (Vereinigte Roma Hamburg) zusammen mit „Recht auf Stadt – never mind the papers!“ und dem bundesweiten Netzwerk „alle bleiben!“. Schon in der vergangenen Woche hatten täglich bis zu 100 Menschen vor der Ausländerbehörde protestiert.

Peggy Parnass: Diskriminierung von Roma hat Tradition

Zu Beginn der Demo sprach Peggy Parnass, Kolumnistin und Autorin, deren Eltern im KZ Treblinka ermordet wurden. Sie erinnerte an das gemeinsame Schicksal mit vielen Roma: „Unsere Eltern und Großeltern starben in KZs“, sagte sie. „Wir werden zur Zeit nicht mehr abgeschlachtet, das ist schon ein Fortschritt. Jetzt werden unsere Freunde beiseite gedrängt und diskriminiert. Das hat Tradition. Aber das darf nicht so bleiben.“

Es könne nicht sein, dass sich Hamburg einerseits als weltoffene Stadt rühme und andererseits zulasse, „dass Roma in ein unerträgliches Leben abgeschoben werden“, sagte sie im Gespräch mit dem St. Pauli Blog. “Sie wollen sich eine Existenz aufbauen und arbeiten. Aber sie werden nur geduldet und bekommen keine Arbeitserlaubnis. Dann wirft man ihnen wieder vor: Die wollen ja nicht arbeiten. Das ist ein Teufelskreis.”

Was Roma in den Balkanländern erfahren, ist “nichts als Ausgrenzung”

„Viele von uns kommen aus Staaten, die die Bundesregierung per Gesetz als ‘sichere Herkunftsländer’ erklärt hat: Mazedonien, Bosnien, Serbien. Auch das Kosovo soll als ‘sicher’ erklärt werden“, sagte Zlatko, einer der Sprecher von Vereinigte Roma, dem St. Pauli Blog. Dabei hätten die Roma die Balkanländer ja gerade deshalb verlassen, weil ihnen dort der Zugang zu Arbeitsplätzen, Bildung oder zur Gesundheitsversorgung weitestgehend versperrt sei. „Wir haben dort nichts als Diskriminierung erlebt, sowohl von Seiten der Behörden wie auch von der Mehrheitsbevölkerung. Die Ausgrenzung von Roma ist dort lebensbedrohlich, vor allem für Kinder und alte Menschen.“ Das werde von der Ausländerbehörde, der Justiz und den politisch Verantwortlichen in der Bürgerschaft aber einfach ignoriert. Asylanträge würden gar nicht mehr geprüft, sondern als offensichtlich unbegründet abgelehnt.

Hamburg macht Druck für “freiwillige Ausreise”

„alle bleiben“ zufolge sind in den kommenden fünf Wochen mindestens 17 Sammelabschiebungen vorgesehen, von denen Hunderte Menschen betroffen seien. Mit einem Schreiben an die in Sammelunterkünften lebenden Roma will Hamburg offenbar Druck für eine „freiwillige Ausreise“ machen. Die zugesandten Formulare „Meldeauflage für die Bundespolizei am Flughafen Hamburg“, in denen Fotos von den Familien mit abgedruckt seien, erwecken den Eindruck von Abschiebeanordnungen. Sie enthalten Termine und sollen zur Identifizierung bei der Zentralen Ausreisekontrolle am Flughafen vorgezeigt werden. „Der Aufenthalt gilt bis zum o.g. genannten Termin als geduldet.“ Nach Ablauf des Termins erlischt die Duldung.

Viele der Betroffenen wüssten gar nicht, was das bedeutet, so Romano Jekipe Ano. Sie stehen mit diesen Briefen vor dem Aus – obwohl sie teilweise schon seit Jahren in der Stadt leben. Nach Angaben der Roma-Vereinigung würden Roma auch dann für reisefähig erklärt, wenn sie Atteste für schwere Erkrankungen vorweisen können. Die Abschiebung werde dann ärztlich begleitet und die Rechnung dafür den Betroffenen hinterhergeschickt.

Zlatko Schmidt ist mit seiner Familie aus Serbien gekommen. „Die meisten Leute hier denken, da ist doch jetzt kein Krieg mehr und alles bestens“, sagt er. „Aber nicht für Roma. Ich habe mich auf freie Stellen beworben und bin zu Vorstellungsgesprächen gegangen. In dem Moment, wo sie sehen, dass man Roma ist, hat man keine Chance.“

Der Mythos von den “sicheren Herkunftsländern”

Eine Delegation aus Juristen und Flüchtlingsorganisationen, die 2013 Serbien besuchte und sich über die Lage der Roma informierte, bestätigte eine massive Diskriminierung. „Wir haben informelle Siedlungen gesehen, deren Häuser nur aus Sperrmüll und Pappe bestanden. Wir haben städtische Roma-Siedlungen gesehen, die seit Jahren nicht ans öffentliche Abwassernetz angeschlossen werden. Immer wieder wurde uns über die Verweigerung der Zuzahlungsbefreiung von Medikamenten für chronisch Kranke berichtet“, berichteten Mitglieder der Delegation. Roma seien auch immer wieder körperlichen Angriffen und Beleidigungen ausgesetzt. Polizeilichen Schutz gebe es nicht.

Kritisch ist die Lage der Roma auch in Ländern wie Montenegro, Bosnien-Herzegowina Mazedonien und dem Kosovo. In all diesen Ländern ist mit dem Ende der Balkankriege nicht der Wohlstand ausgebrochen, eine funktionierende Verwaltung gibt es nicht.

Im Kosovo wartet das Elend

Besonders die Flucht aus dem Kosovo habe „überwiegend mit der Verarmung breiter Schichten zu tun“, so die Organisation pro asyl: „Etwa ein Drittel der Bevölkerung lebt von weniger als 1,40 Euro pro Tag, viele leben im absoluten Elend, darunter insbesondere die Angehörigen von diskriminierten Minderheiten wie etwa den Roma“. Viele von ihnen hätten Bezüge zu Deutschland, weil sie in der Tito-Ära schon als Gastarbeiter hier gearbeitet hätten und die Sprache sprechen oder während der Balkankriege in Deutschland Asyl suchten.

Aber noch heute gibt es im Kosovo keine funktionierenden Strukturen. „Nachdem Bosnien-Herzegowina, Mazedonien und Serbien ohne ausreichende Prüfung der menschenrechtlichen Verhältnisse auf die Liste der sogenannten ‘sicheren Herkunftsstaaten’ gesetzt wurden, um damit bereits laufende Abschiebungen zu legitimieren, droht dies nun im Falle Kosovos, Montenegros und Albaniens fortgeschrieben zu werden“, so pro asyl.

Die überwiegende Mehrzahl der nichtdeutschen Roma im Bundesgebiet hat keinen rechtmäßigen Aufenthalt, sondern wird lediglich geduldet. Nach Schätzungen der Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung lebten 2011 insgesamt etwa etwa 80.000 bis 120.000 Roma in der Bundesrepublik. Inzwischen dürften es weit mehr sein.

Quelle: St. Pauli Blog
Stand: 20.07.2015

Die von Horst Seehofer vorgeschlagenen Sonderlager für Balkanflüchtlinge – viele von ihnen Roma – kritisiert Amaro Foro e.V. auf das Schärfste. „Anlässlich des 2. August wird in Deutschland von Sinti und Roma des Genozids im Nationalsozialismus gedacht. In der Nacht zum 2. August wurden in Auschwitz fast 3000 Menschen im sogenannten Zigeunerlager ermordet. Es ist unfassbar, dass heute ein Ministerpräsident in Deutschland tatsächlich Sonderlager für eine bestimmte Gruppe von Flüchtlingen vorschlagen kann, ohne sofort zurücktreten zu müssen“, so Merdjan Jakupov, Vorsitzender von Amaro Foro e.V. und selbst Rom aus Mazedonien.

Bereits im letzten Jahr wurden Mazedonien, Serbien und Bosnien-Herzegowina zu „sicheren Herkunftsstaaten“ erklärt, sodass Asylbewerber von dort inzwischen nach einem Schnellverfahren wieder abgeschoben werden können. Aktuell wird diskutiert, Albanien und das Kosovo ebenfalls zu sicheren Herkunftsstaaten zu erklären. „Bisheriger moralischer Tiefpunkt der Debatte ist jedoch der Vorschlag von Horst Seehofer, Flüchtlinge aus den Westbalkanländern in gesonderten Lagern unterzubringen, um sie möglichst schnell wieder abschieben zu können. Da in der öffentlichen Wahrnehmung vor allem Roma aus diesen Ländern in Deutschland Asyl beantragen, schlägt Seehofer de facto Sonderlager für eine bestimmte ethnische Gruppe vor“, kritisiert Pressesprecherin Andrea Wierich. „Ebenfalls indiskutabel ist der Vorschlag vom Chef des Bundesamts für Migration und Flüchtlinge Manfred Schmidt, Flüchtlingen aus den Westbalkanländern das Taschengeld zu streichen.“

Die Einstufung als sichere Herkunftsstaaten beruht auf einer sehr einseitigen Auslegung des Begriffs der politischen Verfolgung. Nicht nur ein von Pro Asyl in Auftrag gegebenes Rechtsgutachten, sondern auch die Richtlinien des Europäischen Rates legen fest, dass eine politische Verfolgung nicht zwingend von staatlichen Akteuren ausgehen muss – entgegen der aktuellen Auslegung der Bundesregierung. Die Richtlinien des Europäischen Rates legen fest, dass Flüchtlinge dann nicht abgeschoben werden dürfen, wenn ihnen ein „ernsthafter Schaden“ droht, der auch von nichtstaatlichen Akteuren ausgehen kann, etwa Menschenrechtsverletzungen oder Übergriffe durch die Justiz (vgl. Art. 2, 6 und 8 der Richtlinie). Die Bundesregierung erkennt jedoch nur schwerwiegende staatliche Repressionen als politische Verfolgung an.

„Das ist auch der Grund für die extrem niedrigen Anerkennungsquoten von Asylanträgen aus den Westbalkanländern. Deutschland ist hier als Hardliner einzustufen – die Anerkennungsquote für Asylanträge aus Mazedonien etwa liegt in Deutschland bei 0,6 Prozent, in Frankreich jedoch bei 16,9 und in der Schweiz gar bei 22,2 Prozent“, erklärt Wierich. „Auch die Einstufung von Westbalkanstaaten als sichere Herkunftsländer ist deshalb eigentlich nicht mit europäischem Recht vereinbar.“

„In den Westbalkanstaaten sind Roma sowohl vom Arbeitsmarkt als auch vom Bildungs- und Gesundheitssystem ausgeschlossen. Sie leben in undokumentierten, offiziell nicht existierenden Slums und sind gewalttätigen Übergriffen sowohl durch rechte Gruppierungen als auch immer wieder durch die Polizei ausgesetzt“, so Jakupov. „Sie haben keinen Zugang zu Sozialleistungen; elementare Bürgerrechte scheinen für sie nicht zu gelten. Hinzu kommt, dass Mazedonien – vom Westen bisher weitgehend ignoriert – dabei ist, sich zu einer Diktatur zu entwickeln. Präsident Nikolai Gruevski schürt Spannungen zwischen ethnischen Gruppen, um seine Macht zu festigen, die Medien sind gleichgeschaltet und es gibt politische Gefangene – etwa Oppositionelle und kritische Journalisten. Weitgehend unbekannt ist bisher auch, dass bei der Polizeiaktion im Mai, bei der es 22 Tote gab, die Opfer vor allem Roma waren.“

„In Serbien ist die Situation von Roma ähnlich. Dort können rassistische Mobs ungestraft zu Hate Crime gegen Roma aufrufen, gewalttätige Übergriffe sind keine Seltenheit“, erklärt Violeta Balog, serbische Romni und Gründungsmitglied von Amaro Foro e.V. „Es ist unfassbar, dass dennoch Roma aus den Westbalkanstaaten in Deutschland nicht als schutzbedürftig anerkannt, sondern als Wirtschaftsflüchtlinge diskreditiert werden. In einem Land, in dem es bereits einmal Sonderlager für Roma gab, ist eine solche Geschichtsvergessenheit unfassbar.“

Quelle: Amaro Foro
Stand: 03.08.2015

What comes to mind when you hear the word “gypsy?” Do you picture the beautiful, kind-hearted Esmeralda from Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame or women begging on the streets of Europe, whom travelers are told to avoid?

“Gypsy” is a racial slur used to describe the Romani people, an ethnic group dispersed throughout Central and Eastern Europe, which falsely attributes their origin to Egypt. The word “gypsy” also carries the negative connotations that Roma are cheaters and thieves—the people responsible when you have been scammed or “gypped.” This kind of wide generalization and stereotype has historically bound the Roma to racism and exclusion from mainstream society.

The years between 2005 and 2015 were deemed “The Decade of Roma Inclusion” by 12 European countries—Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Spain— which pledged to close the gap between the Roma and the rest of society. In an interview with the HPR, Robert Kushen, Director of the Decade Secretariat, the main facilitation body of the Decade, stated that by implementing the Decade, “the EU has, in a very public and political way, acknowledged that this is an issue that demands a concerted political response.” It is now timely to analyze whether this ten-year initiative has had an impact on the lives of the long-marginalized Romani people.

A pattern of discrimination

About 1,000 years ago, the Roma migrated from Northern India and settled in Europe. Since then, they have faced discrimination in many forms. Persecuted and subjected to laws that restricted their language, dress, and culture across Europe, the Romani people were also enslaved in Hungary and Romania during the 15th century and targeted for extermination by the Nazi regime during the Holocaust. Perpetually on the fringes of society, the Roma remain second-class citizens in Europe.

Today, between 10 and 12 million Roma live in Europe, comprising the continent’s largest ethnic minority. Although the Roma are spread out, they face similar social, political, and economic challenges throughout the continent. One in three Roma are unemployed, and 90 percent live below the poverty line according to the European Union Agency for Fundamental Human Rights. Denied fair and equal access to secure employment, housing, and education, the Roma are caught in a vicious cycle of poverty and social stigmatization that effectively excludes them from mainstream society.

The Decade of Roma Inclusion sought to address these issues with priority areas focusing on health, employment, housing, and education. Justifying his support of education initiatives in particular, Kushen explained, “In the long run, they are probably and arguably the most important thing to do because they are the easiest to do.” With the least amount of legal and political resistance, tackling educational discrimination is the logical first step in fixing the overall problem. Moreover, substandard education at a young age restricts Romani children from reaching higher education, finding work, and ultimately entering society as full and competent participants. Thus, through disparities in education, Roma face early limitations and obstacles to inclusion into society, which impact their lives in the long term.

Systemic segregation

Institutional discrimination results in poor educational outcomes for Romani children. UNICEF data shows that in most of Central and Eastern Europe in 2011, only about 20 percent of Roma children enrolled in primary school, a stark difference from the 90 percent of their non-Roma peers that did. Moreover, two out of three Roma children do not complete their primary education, with dropout rates only increasing as they get older and less than one percent attending university. In general, Roma students also perform worse in terms of grade average than their non-Roma peers and take longer to complete their primary education.

Surveys conducted in Romania by the Romani Center for Social Intervention and Studies found that financial burden was the main reason for non-enrollment in kindergarten and high dropout rates. Those who are able to enroll face further discrimination. A report released by the European Commission in 2014 describes how Roma students are segregated; some attend essentially “Roma-only” schools in ghettoized neighborhoods, and some are purposely placed into different ‘Roma’ classes at more heterogeneous schools. In the most alarming scenario, through inaccurate examinations, many Roma children are declared to have learning disabilities. A New York Times article explains that they are then disproportionately streamed into remedial “special schools,” where inferior teaching quality and poor learning objectives ensure a substandard education. Once placed in a special school, there is virtually no way to transfer back into the mainstream education system.

Margareta Matache, Roma rights activist and professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, told the HPR that Roma children already “come into this world with a heavy baggage of historic inequalities and stigmatization perpetuated by generations of non-Roma all over Europe.” Such stigmatization combined with the aforementioned efforts of exclusion fosters hostility against Roma children. Constantly reminded of their inferiority through low academic standards held by their teachers and unaided by their parents who cannot provide assistance to their children due to their own lack of education, Roma children have very limited opportunities. In this way, government school systems strip them of their inalienable right to education, stifling their social mobility and capacity to break out of their cycle of poverty.

Lack of impact

The Decade of Roma Inclusion attempted to provide a framework that would help member state governments set and meet their goals for Roma integration in education. States drafted National Action Plans that detailed measures such as data collection, support programs, and monitoring systems. The Decade also helped mobilize new resources for the inclusion of Romani people, such as the Roma Education Fund and other projects focusing on desegregation, pre-school enrollment, and secondary school scholarships. The incorporation of these policies on a national level contributes to raised overall awareness of Roma exclusion, which the Decade stated as one of its chief positive impacts in its policy option paper.

However, weak implementation of policies on a regional level demonstrates a lack of impact that seemed unavoidable, given the Decade’s weak structure and lack of financial backing. Zeljko Jovanovic, Director of the Roma Initiatives Office for the Open Society Foundations, explained to the HPR that member states could not deliver on the budgetary commitments and strict implementation they intended when they endorsed the Decade in 2003. As years passed and momentum faded, some states lost interest in their commitments. The pledges of the Decade became nothing more than broad promises and soft declarations without mechanisms of real enforcement at the societal level. Kushen also admitted, “The impact on the ground for the majority of Roma has not translated as well. It has translated into a little more money, a little more attention, a little more programming, but it hasn’t had a major impact on the lives of people just yet.”
The lack of systematic change for Roma was evidenced in the 2007 landmark case of D.H. and Others v. Czech Republic. The European Court ruled in favor of 18 Roma students who challenged the Czech Republic for indirectly discriminating against Roma children and placing them into special schools. Yet, eight years on from this decision, some of those 18 students have children of their own, who will unfortunately face the same system of deep-rooted segregation. Nearly 30 percent of Roma children in the Czech Republic still attend special schools, compared to two percent of their non-Roma peers. Similar weak enforcement persists in other European countries such as Slovakia, where 43 percent of Roma are still enrolled in segregated classes, according to Amnesty International.

Matache thinks that one reason major gains in legislation have not translated into a greater lasting impact is that “states have missed the opportunity to tackle strong anti-Roma beliefs that have been perpetuated by generations in Roma-related policies.” Such systemic segregation seems out of place in 21st century Europe, but Zeljko Jovanovic, Director of the Roma Initiatives Office for the Open Society Foundations, explained to the HPR that, “racism against Roma has elevated to the political level.” He went further, saying that some politicians even fuel anti-Roma attitudes to gain votes, making change seem out of reach no matter how well legislation is enforced. Exclusion of Roma will persist as long as prejudice does.

Hope for the future

When asked by the HPR about the importance of resolving discrimination in education, Matache responded earnestly, “Roma children need role models, positive Roma stories, and inspiration for success and pride, to prove that it is possible.”

Anna Mirga, a young woman of Polish and Romani descent, is an example of such an inspiration, demonstrating the possibilities for Romani children taught in environments where their differences are celebrated rather than targeted. Now a successful graduate student and a fellow with the Open Society Roma Initiatives Office, Anna grew up in Poland, where she encountered few minorities. In an interview with the Federation of Roma Associations in Catalonia, she explained that since she was somewhat exotic, her experience in school was not of discrimination. “It was like a fascination.” Her teachers would encourage her, “‘Tell us about your family and about your culture!’” Never ashamed of her Roma identity, Anna greatly benefited from this learning environment, gaining confidence and cultural pride that later helped her to achieve.

Stories like Anna’s offer hope for a future in which Roma can be integrated as full members of society, a future that is only possible if Europe pushes its efforts past simple legislation. Even as the Decade of Roma Inclusion draws to a disappointing close, Europe must concentrate on stripping away the stereotypes and prejudice that have surrounded Roma for centuries. They have only started the long process of adjusting their understanding of this culture and community, so tightly woven into the fabric of European history and so tightly trapped in a system of segregation. Real change will occur when the Roma are no longer compared to Disney characters, dismissed as street beggars, or degraded as “gypsies,” but when they are viewed for what they are—people, who deserve to be treated as such.

Source: Harvard Political Review
Date: 11.02.2015

A transgender Romani woman has been found by police, killed at her home in the neighborhood of Kurtuluş on the European side of Istanbul, news website Bianet reported on Oct. 10. The circumstances of the murder are unclear, with police officials saying they are unable to establish whether there had been a robbery at the address. Relatives of the woman, known as “Gypsie Gül,” told Bianet that most murders of transgender people who earn their living through prostitution are usually committed by their clients. However, they also added that Gül did not bring her clients to her home but usually went to hotels.
Gül’s body was found by a friend who was concerned after not receiving news from her for two days. Kurtuluş, in the central Şişli district of Istanbul, is one of the most tolerant neighborhoods in the city, where many transgender people have chosen to settle and live. Many transgender people in Turkey live under constant threat of hate attacks and most of the murders targeting the LGBT community are left unsolved. A young transgender woman, Çağla Joker, was murdered last April following an attack by two young men.

Source: Hürriyet Daily News
Date: 10.10.2014

Earlier this month a square in the Viennese quarter of Neubau was named after one of its celebrated, recently deceased residents, Ceija Stojka. A Romani woman, Ms Stojka survived three concentration camps, lived a travelling lifestyle for years after the war, and made her living as a carpet seller.

At the end of the 1980s she published her autobiography, called We Live in Seclusion – Memories of a Romni, which was published in Czech translation 20 years later by the Romano daniben association in collaboration with the Argo publishing house. In time she became a famous author and painter and was eventually granted an honorary professorship by a government minister.

As part of the „ordination“ of the square, a celebration was held in front of the chruch where Ms Stojka had regularly attended mass. Her relatives read from her books and played Romani songs, while the children in attendance were able to make masks if they felt like it.

The honoring of Romani people outside the Czech Republic

In the Austrian capital the year 2001 saw the naming of Roma-Platz („Romani Square“), Sintiweg („Sinti Street“) and Lovaraweg („Lovara Street“) on the banks of the Danube, where before the war the wagons of traveling horse traders had often parked. The local pub was famous for having been frequently reserved by Romani people for their celebrations and festivities.

In many French cities you will find a „Django Reinhardt Street“ named after the celebrated Manouche Romani jazz guitarist. In Brest there is rue Matéo Maximoff, named after a boilermaker by trade who was also the first Kalderash Romani author.

In the Western Polish city of Poznań there is „Papuzsa Street“, bearing the nickname of the legendary Romani author Bronisława Wajs, whose life story has been the subject of two Polish films. In Germany the names of some streets mostly recall the Romani victims of Nazism, such as Johann Trollmann Street in Hannover, named after the former boxing champion of Germany.

Trollman won the title by rights in 1934 only to see the Nazis strip him of it unjustifiably. After he returned from the front, injured after serving as a Wehrmacht soldier, he was thrown into a concentration camp and beaten to death by a guard.

Ordinary Roma remembered

Streets in Germany, however, do not only carry the names of Romani celebrities. The northern German town of Oldenburg has had a „Mechau Family Street“ for more than 20 years in honor of a Romani family whose members were all but completely murdered in Auschwitz because the Nazi doctor Josef Mengele had taken an interest in their eyes.

In Cologne you will find „Laubinger Street“, named after a completely unknown local Romani girl who was murdered by the Nazis during WWII. The southern German town of Ulm honors the memory of Willi Eckstein by naming a street after him.

Eckstein’s family made their living by playing music and lived a traveling lifestyle, and when their caravan was parked in Ulm, Willi was born in the local hospital. He died in Auschwitz at the age of 11.

In the small western German town of Greven, pupils at the local high school researched the fates of local victims of Nazism as part of a school project and proposed the town install a memorial plaque in the memory of the Sinti girl Margot Kraus and her mother. The town did not do so, but named two new streets after them instead.

In the spring, the eastern German town of Magdeburg named a street Ede und Unku Weg after the nicknames of the young German-Romani pair in a children’s book by Grete Weiskopf about the Romani victims of Nazism. The novel has also been translated into Czech and can be found in libraries and used bookstores under the title Eda a Unku (Ede and Unku).

What’s missing in the Czech Republic

In the 19th century – for example, in Teplice or in the Jewish Quarter of Prague – there still officially existed more than one „Cikánská ulice“ (Gypsy Street). Many Czech streets 100 years ago were named after various nations.

The fact that no „Německá ulice“ (German Street) has been among them since the Nazi era is understandable. The fact that the communists were not able to name even one street after a Romani person (when you can find a „Chodské“ or „Bohemian Shepherd Street“ almost everywhere) indicates that even the communists did not consider Romani people to be equal citizens deserving the same recognition as everyone else.

The question of whether any street in the Czech Republic has been named after a Romani person deserves particular research. For the time being, it seems that if such a street does exist, its occupants have no idea whom it is named after.

The closest anyone Romani got to having a street named after them in the Czech Republic was probably the former prisoner of the Lety concentration camp and „black partisan“ Josef Serinek, who passed away in 1974. This year a two-volume biography of him by historian Jan Tesař will be published.

Who in the Czech Republic might see to honoring Romani people in this way? Anyone can propose naming a street after someone.

There were thousands of Romani victims of Nazism from the Czech lands alone, and their names are included in the published lists of prisoners from the camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Hodonín by Kunštát and Lety by Písk. Let’s try to do something with them.

Source: Romea.cz
Date: 28.09.2014