Coming out of the shadows

Poll finds discrimination against Roma still rife in Romania, though some cite recent improvement

A Roma couple dances in a Bucharest park, in celebration of International Roma Day on Wednesday. Despite being discriminated against, many Roma, or Gypsies, in Romania are waging a daily battle for acceptance.

By Mihaela Rodina - Agence France-Presse

BUCHAREST – Despite being stereotyped and discriminated against, more and more Roma, or Gypsies, in Romania are flaunting their background, waging a daily battle for acceptance.

“To be a Roma in Romania is a constant challenge but only those who come to terms with their identity can really get ahead,” says Daniel Ganga, who was just recently ordained as the first Orthodox priest of Roma origin.

Born in a family that did everything it could to hide its ethnic background, Ganga was nevertheless labeled by his classmates as a Gypsy. “I had to decide when I was 15 or 16 who I was,” the now 29-year-old told AFP. “When I started learning the Roma language, my mother told me not to speak it in front of others.” According to a 2008 Gallup poll, 33 percent of Romanians would not want a Roma as their neighbor, while 67 percent would never marry one.

Meanwhile, close to 75 percent of Romanians believe that “most Roma break the law” and about 25 percent think Gypsies should be banned from traveling, so as not to damage their country’s image abroad.

Discrimination in school or in the workplace is also common for this community, which counts about 535,000 people officially, but is probably closer to 1.5 or 2 million people.

“I have friends who didn’t get a job simply because of the color of their skin,” says Adina Corobuta, a student in northeastern Iasi.

Roma must overcome major hurdles to succeed, adds Aurelia Dulgheru, 21, who is in her third year of medical school in Bucharest. “We’re faced with a vicious circle: Everything begins with a lack of education, which hinders access to a well-paid job and thus a home with basic sanitary conditions. From there on come the stereotypes that ‘Gypsies smell bad,’” she says.

Dulgheru did not hesitate for a second when she was given the opportunity to apply for a scholarship from the Soros Foundation if she stated her Roma origins. “For me, it was an extraordinary opportunity, which really motivated me,” she says. But for many, it is not that easy to admit their background, even if the prize is a scholarship.

Classes are even organized to help them gain confidence and overcome their fears.

“It’s not unusual for teenagers to ask quietly whether the word ‘Roma’ will appear on their diploma,” says sociologist Gelu Duminica from the community development agency Impreuna.

Duminica, who is also a Roma and often got called a “dirty Gypsy,” says he already understood as a child that he would have “to wash himself and study twice as hard as Romanian children.” He notes, however, that the attitude toward Roma has improved slightly in recent years, even if some media continue to feed the old stereotypes.

“Fingers are often pointed at the Roma when we talk about delinquents, but we forget that they are the product of the Romanian education system and of our society,” notes Duminica.

BELGRADE (Combined reports) – The welfare of the Roma minority in Serbia has improved but remains “far from satisfactory,” a minister said late on Wednesday, as human rights activists protested the eviction of a group of them in Belgrade.

“Roma are 10 times poorer than the rest of the population” while surveys show that one in four “does not have even an elementary school education,” said Labor and Welfare Minister Rasim Ljajic.

Speaking at a parliamentary board session on International Roma Day, Ljajic called for “systematic measures to be taken in order to improve the status of Roma,” the Beta news agency reported.

Their welfare has “improved but is far from satisfactory,” the minister said.

The 2002 census reported that 108,000 Roma live in Serbia, but it is believed that they number around 450,000 out of a population of 7.5 million, said Svetozar Ciplic, human and minority rights minister.

In the capital, Belgrade, several dozen human rights activists peacefully gathered in front of City Hall to protest the weekend eviction of some 250 Roma, among them children and elderly, from their temporary settlement in town.

Their makeshift dwellings were destroyed in order to clear the site for a road planned to be used for the World Student Games to be held this summer.

Serbian President Boris Tadic urged the authorities to find a solution for homeless Roma families, his office said in a statement.

“All citizens of Serbia have to have same the rights and duties, regardless of their nationality, but the authorities must pay particular attention to the problems the Roma in our country face,” Tadic was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch and the European Roma Rights Center yesterday urged Serbian authorities in a letter to immediately provide alternative housing for the evicted Roma families.

Belgrade city authorities said yesterday the families will move into a youth community center.

Wanda Troszczynska from Human Rights Watch says it is a “scandal that the government has left these people on the street.” (AFP, AP)

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA (AFP) – Some 200 Kosovo Roma staged a candlelight vigil late on Wednesday to protest their decade-long sequestration on highly toxic wasteland that has led to severe health problems.

“We wanted to show that our problem needs a solution that will provide us with healthcare and a decent settlement,” said local Roma leader Skender Gushani at the protest being held on International Roma Day. “We demand to be evacuated from these camps and to be treated medically,” he said.

After a NATO air campaign wrested Kosovo from Serbian control in 1999 and put it under UN administration, more then 200 Roma families who had lost their homes were resettled temporarily in three camps on dangerous wasteland with high levels of lead.

The Roma said they were promised by Kosovo’s UN administration that they would only be housed in the camps in the north of the territory for 45 days at most. But 10 years on, some 500 Roma are still living in two of three refugee camps.

In its 2004 and 2008 reports, the World Health Organization has called for the camps to be evacuated, as irreversible organ and brain damage have been registered among many of the children living there. “Since 1999, 83 people, among them children, have died here,” Gushani said, insisting that many deaths were related to lead exposure.