Action Alert

ACTION ALERT: Roma Community Facing Forced Eviction

Posted Sun, 09/13/2009 - 6:43pm

Amnesty International has released this action alert:

City authorities in Milan, northern Italy, are preparing to forcibly evict a community of about 200 Roma people living in Rubattino area in the east of the city. According to local NGOs and media, they have announced that they will carry out the evictions at some point before 21 September.

According to the information received by Amnesty International, It is not clear what alternative accommodation will be offered to the community living in the Rubattino area. They have not been consulted on the proposed evictions, and the authorities have made no attempt to identify with them any feasible alternatives to the evictions. When the city authorities have previously evicted Roma communities, they have offered some form of shelter in the short term (weeks or a few months), and only to women and small children, in the city’s dormitories for homeless people.

Discriminatory initiative proposed by Romanian newspaper

Posted Mon, 03/09/2009 - 9:29pm

On its edition from March 2, the Jurnalul National daily newspaper published a proposal for a new law by which the word “Roma” would be replaced by “Gipsy” in Romania and Internationally in order to avoid confusion with Romanian citizens.

The newspaper explains its approach by the "increased number of crimes made by Roma in Italy but not only, as well as by associating those acts with Romanian people, presented as rapist, thieves which conducted to negative effects not only on our country's image but over Romanians who, in good will, go aboard to make an honest buck."

The Tragedy of Hadareni

Posted Tue, 02/03/2009 - 7:52pm
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[In September 1993], the resentment of ethnic Romanians and Hungarians against the Gypsies who live [in the community] exploded into a racial battle and lynching. It was one of many eruptions in Romania [that took place] since the overthrow of the Communist Government nearly four years [earlier and] allowed some long-repressed feelings to come to light.

Interviews with officials and Gypsy leaders in Bucharest as well as with local officials, Gypsy families and the investigating prosecutor in Tirgu Mures, the county seat, produced agreement on these basic facts:

Location

The Tragedy of HadareniHadareni
Romania
46° 42' 7.9272" N, 24° 43' 9.2568" E

Roma rounded up and deported from Geneva

Posted Sat, 01/24/2009 - 10:05pm

On Thursday the 15th January 2009, 30 policemen in four police vans hunted innocent Roma throughout the city of Geneva. When the hunt was over, they had arrested 27 people; 15 men, 7 women and 5 children.

This operation was driven by both the local Police and the State Department of Population. After a hearing at the Police station, the Roma were deported from Switzerland by bus and will not be allowed to return for at least two years.

This operation was undertaken with the purpose of cleaning up Geneva's streets of beggars and musicians. The Roma in Switzerland have been persecuted by the Government since a law making begging illegal was in acted a year ago, leading these people to be systematically arrested, controlled and often asked to surrender what few belongings they actually own to the police.

Location

Roma rounded up and deported from GenevaGeneva
Switzerland
46° 12' 16.3692" N, 6° 5' 1.2444" E

UN Refuses to Acknowledge Romani Victims of the Holocaust at Annual Ceremony

Posted Thu, 01/15/2009 - 9:59pm

On 27 January 2009 the United Nations' will hold its annual observance of the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. in the General Assembly Hall in New York. No Romani representation was sought. Requests asking why and for inclusion from several Romani agencies, including the Union Romani and the IRU to both Ms. Mona Gillet of the Department of Public Information and to Ms. Kimberly Mann, manager of the United Nations Holocaust Outreach Programme, have remained unanswered. The one answer that was received consisted of a reminder that the UN had underwritten an exhibit on Roma at the Hungarian Mission, and had hosted the reception of a Romani delegation earlier in the year.

City of Helsinki not offering housing or health services to itinerant Roma

Posted Sat, 01/10/2009 - 8:53pm
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The City of Helsinki does not plan to launch an operation to assist the ethnic Roma from Romania who have come to Finland to earn money as pedlars, street musicians, and beggars.

“We do not want to encourage the begging phenomenon. That is why we are not arranging health services or housing. The problems that lie behind begging should be solved in their home countries”, says Jarmo Räihä, an expert working for the Social Services Department of the City of Helsinki.

Helsinki also wants to discourage people from giving money to the mendicants.

The city and the Deaconess Institute nevertheless plan to consider possible concrete action later, on the basis of the report on the itinerant Roma phenomenon, which was published on Thursday.

The Roma of Palestine need your help (Updated)

Posted Tue, 01/06/2009 - 7:34pm
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As the missiles rain down upon Gaza and the West Bank, we would like to bring to your attention the more then one thousand Roma that are living in the region and have been living there for more than 100 years.

Many still live without electricity, many do not have indoor plumbing, and many cannot read or write. If a Roma child is able to go to school, they are discriminated against in school by the teachers and classmates. Currently there is no health care available for the Roma community in Palestine.

Location

Location of Domari Society of GypsiesJerusalem
Palestinian Territory
31° 47' 15.7884" N, 35° 14' 6.7704" E

Roma Kids Poisoned by Lead

Posted Thu, 12/11/2008 - 7:43pm
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Children in the United States are a bit safer from lead poisoning after the passage of recent legislation. But some kids living in Kosovo are suffering “the world’s worst case of lead poisoning in children,” according the New Internationalist.

The youngsters are Roma, or gypsy, refugees living in U.N. refugee camps in Northern Kosovo. The camps were built in 1999 on toxic sites, and since 2004 several children living there have registered some of the highest recorded lead levels in medical history. Numerous deaths and more than 50 miscarriages have been attributed to lead poisoning. One 7-year-old, whose family was tested on behalf of the German newspaper Bild in an investigation, had the liver of a 50-year-old alcoholic and is expected die prematurely.

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