Studie von Amnesty International, 8.4.2014 (engl. Originalfassung)
Europe is home to 10-12 million Roma today. Many are living with the daily threat of forced eviction, police harassment and violent attacks.
The conditions in which many Roma are forced to live are a damning indictment of years of official neglect and discrimination. However, far from acknowledging that this situation is a result of their failure to ensure the human rights of the Roma, some European leaders are choosing to blame Roma themselves for “failing to integrate”.
Adela, a young Romani woman living in an informal settlement on the outskirts of Paris, France, told Amnesty International: “I am not living in this place because I like it. I don’t have a choice. I would like to work and to live in a house like everyone else instead of living in a shanty town”. Adela has been forcibly evicted more than 15 times since her arrival in France in 2002. Roma have historically faced extreme violence and marginalization in Europe. Victims of mass-killings during the Second World War, the Roma are still discriminated against in present day Europe. Many live in segregated housing and attend segregated and inferior schools. A recent survey found that 90% of Europe’s Roma are living in poverty.
Violence, harassment and intimidation of Roma people and communities by the police and by private individuals and groups (non-state actors), some of whom belong to far-right groups, are widespread. According to the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), one in five Roma in the European Union experienced racist violence in the 12 months ahead of a survey carried out in 2008.
The response of the authorities has been inadequate. Indeed, rather than condemning racist attacks against Roma, in some instances officials have excused it, or suggested that Roma only had themselves to blame. For example, in June 2013, Slovakia’s Interior Minister, responding to criticism over the failure to investigate and discipline those responsible for police use of force during a raid in June 2013 of the settlement in Budulovská Street in Moldava nad Bodvou, eastern Slovakia, in which 30 Roma, including several children, were injured, reportedly said: “The activists, journalists and also the ombudswoman, none of them have stood up for the rights of the majority citizens in Moldava nad Bodvou, who on a daily basis are being terrorised by people from socially excluded groups… Slovaks are not racists; they do not mind the Roma, Arabs, Asians. They mind people who are un-adjustable and who continuously violate laws.”
In 2012, Ilias Kasidiaris, a member of Greek parliament belonging to the far-right Golden Dawn party, made a speech in Aspropyrgos, home to many Roma, in which he referred to Roma as “human garbage” and called on residents to get rid of them from the area. In May 2013, Magyar Hirlap, a daily newspaper, was fined by Hungary’s media watchdog for publishing an opinion piece by Zsolt Bayer, journalist and founding member of Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party, in which he referred to Roma as “animals”, “not fit to live among human beings”. Fidesz has only issued very limited criticism of this statement.
Statements from EU officials have also at times suggested that Roma were in part responsible for their own exclusion. For example, on 16 January 2014, Viviane Reding, the EU Commissioner for Justice and Fundamental Rights, said: “Many of the Roma live in big poverty…they get out of the countries of origins because they do not have future there… We need dedication [to solve these problems] not only from Member States, but also from Roma communities to be willing to integrate and to be willing to have a normal way of living.“
Besieged by violence and discrimination, excluded from access to essential services, and unable to get redress for violations because of the indifference or outright hostility of the police and other state institutions, many Roma feel abandoned. Maria, a young Romani woman from Etoliko, Greece said: “The police told us they can’t protect us…they said: ‘We can’t do anything, so, you assume responsibility [for remaining at your homes]. You should take your children, your families and leave.”
Many attacks against Roma are not reported because people do not trust the police and the racial motivation of attacks is rarely uncovered during police investigations and prosecution. Few authorities collect specific data on hate crimes against Roma. Most have failed to protect Romani communities from intimidation, harassment and racially motivated violence and subsequently failed to investigate incidents adequately and bring those responsible to justice.
This briefing examines hate motivated violence and harassment perpetrated against Roma by state and non-state actors. It looks at emblematic cases in three countries – the Czech Republic, France and Greece – to explore concerns that are replicated throughout the region. The briefing concludes with a series of recommendations calling on national governments and EU institutions to adequately respond to discrimination, violence and harassment against the Roma.
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