International Roma Day
April 9th, 2009 by Jason Bergen Posted in Migrants
As well as being the day Oxfam introduced FRED to the world, yesterday was also International Roma Day.
Oxfam’s programme in the UK has a long history of working with migrants, who are some of the poorest people in the country. So, when a few thousand Roma started settling in Glasgow five years ago, we knew there were bound to be challenges. You can find out more about our work with the new Roma community in Glasgow, which recently won an award from the local council, here.
International Roma Day is an important day for the 300,000 Roma in the UK, who celebrate the history and culture of the Romani people. But it is also a day that highlights the discrimination that they continue to face. This article, in the Sunday Herald, delves into the culture and history of the Romani, largely ignored by most of the UK press. It highlights the Porajmos, which literally means devouring in Romani, used to describe the genocide of the 1940s where hundreds of thousands of Roma were killed, and it explains the differences between Romani groups.
This year has not been a happy one for Roma rights. They’ve traditionally faced severe discrimination in Eastern Europe, despite centuries of settlement. Following the entry of much of eastern Europe to the EU, things got better for Europe’s largest minority, as eastern European countries needed to show their commitment to human rights. Yet this past year has seen Roma physically attacked and targeted not only in places like the Czech Republic and Hungary but also in western European countries like Italy.
And the UK is not immune. A year ago the media was invited to follow the police and social services into homes in Slough to confront a so-called ‘Roma child trafficking ring’. Images of police breaking down doors and taking children into care flashed across our television screens and screamed from the front pages of national papers. However within days the story was proven to be false and all children released to their families.
But the damage was done, and despite the retractions, does a short paragraph of apology and clarification on page 26 repair it? The UK traveller population already faces much discrimination in the UK, and recessions have never been favourable to migrants whoever they may be. Despite experiencing real prejudice before, Roma organisations are really concerned that ill-feeling and discrimination will increase. We all hope that International Roma Day 2010 will give us more to celebrate, but it’s not clear that it will…
