Amnesty, discrimination, arbitration, widespread racist violence

Marginalization, arbitration, violence: this is the daily reality for a good part of the ten to twelve million Roma living in Europe. It is a very sad picture that is outlined in a report on the situation of nomads on our continent that was made public yesterday in Germany by Amnesty International on the occasion of the International Roma Day. The nomads – reads the report entitled We ask for Justice – they are often victims of evictions and forced transfers, persecutions also by administrative and police authorities and violent attacks. And in many cases, political leaders instead of condemning the violence exercised against the Roma blame their own victims, often giving voice to the commonplace of their alleged lack of willingness to integrate.

The most difficult situations. The countries where the situation is most difficult, according to Amnesty International, are Greece, the Czech Republic and France, where it is precisely the socialist government that has long been implementing a radical plan to dismantle the camps and forcefully transfer the inhabitants. In all three states racist acts of violence against the Roma have increased dangerously and the response of the authorities has been culpably weak, if not complicit. But discrimination is widespread in all countries. An “absolutely unacceptable” situation, as stated by Selmin Caliskan, general secretary of Amnesty in Germany, where more than 100 thousand Roma ethnic nomads often live under precarious conditions: “Instead of acting decisively against violence and discrimination, many European politicians blame the prejudices of their voters according to whom the Roma themselves are responsible for their own marginalization. This way of expressing itself only adds to the propensity to violence already widespread in society “.

54% of Roma in Greece are victims of racist abuses. The study, as has been said, analyzes in detail the discriminations in Greece, in the Czech Republic and in France. Let’s see some data. In Greece there is a “totally inadequate” response by the authorities to racist crime. Often, instead of punishing the perpetrators of the violence, the victims are hit with unprovoked arrests. Already in 2008, a study Rights had established that 54% of Greek Roma were at least once a victim of racist attacks. The prejudice of the Greek authorities is evidently witnessed by the case of the “little blond angel”. A child named Maria was found during a police raid on a Roma camp and since she had light hair she was established by authority, despite the protests of relatives, that she was the victim of a kidnapping. Later it was discovered that the mother was Bulgarian and Maria was adopted in an absolutely legal manner. But meanwhile the newspapers and the TV had staged a campaign on kidnappings of children to whom the “gypsies” would be dedicated.

Anti-Roma marches in the Czech Republic.Last year there were a series organized by the extreme right with slogans like “Gypsies to forced labor” and references to Nazism racial politics. Often, like August 24, there have been serious episodes of violence, but no Czech politician has condemned the marches. Many similar initiatives are planned in the major cities of the country also for next summer. In France, where 20,000 Roma live, there is a widespread intolerance, which last September prompted the then Interior Minister and Prime Minister Manuel Valls to declare that “these people have lifestyles that are profoundly different from ours and therefore they should go back to Romania or Bulgaria “. Amnesty then denounces the violations of fundamental rights perpetrated with forced evictions and expulsions,

(08 April 2014)