Just outside the Schuman metro station, in front of Brussel’s executive arm – the European Commission, a Romani woman cradles her small child. Next to her is a cup.
It is a sad spectacle for a Europe that has had and continues to have an entire people either living on the cusp of poverty or in its unforgiving grasp.
On the 8 of April, Brussels welcomed the Roma International Day and highlighted the misery of 10 million people the rest of Europe is trying its best to ignore.
Unemployment, prejudice, discrimination, poor health and education, the Roma are Europe’s outcasts who survive by any means at their disposal.
A day before, the Organization for the Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) High Commissioner on National Minorities released a statement condemning the scapegoating of Roma communities by Europe on the ills of society. Scapegoating should be a word that has sensitized Europe into facing up to its own problems. But the reality is different.
Racist attacks against not only Roma individuals but entire families are widespread. Camps have been razed (pdf) and firebombed in Hungary, Italy, Czech Republic, Serbia, Bulgaria, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.
Xenophobic Italian politicians are keen to point their fingers at these communities. A London monthly called Rome’s mayor Gianni Alemanno a “fascist posing as a respectable politician” according to journalist Doug Ireland.
And who could forget the pictures of two dead Roma girls on a crowded Italian beach? The Independent put it bluntly – The Picture That Shames Italy.
Gianfranco Fini, a high ranking political figure in Italy, delivered a hate speech against Roma communities. His racist statements were subsequently published in the Italian daily Corriere della Sera without any editorial remark.
Young Romani seeking employment disguise their identity. A 26-year old Romani woman from Western Transylvania, found work in Tuscany, Italy with the help of a local priest.
She was able to secure her working papers, social-security and identity card. Six months later, the employer found out that she was a ‘gypsy’ from Romania.
The employer then seized her documents and refused to pay her. A labour union helped recover the documents and lost wages. Disheartened, the young woman returned to Romania (excerpt taken from the OSCE report below).
For more information check out the European Roma Rights Centre here.
Also, see the OSCE report on the Recent Migration of Roma in Europe here (pdf).
