Under-priveleged Roma children of South-east europe

With a population of an estimated eight to ten million, the ethnic group of Roma people represent the biggest minority in Europe. About half of them are children. Despite their different life styles across the continent, they have much in common. Millions of them live in conditions close to those in the poorest developing countries. UNICEF presented this week two studies on the situation of Roma children in southeast Europe and Germany.

UNICEF officials pointed out that most Roma children in southeast Europe live in slum-like homes. They have only extremely restricted access to pre- school facilities. They are under-performers in school and suffer from sub-standard health care. As Gordon Alexander from UNICEF's regional office for eastern Europe emphasised, the situation of the Roma children worsened tremdously after the breakdown of Communism in the early 1990s.

"What has happened is that the Roma were particularly vulnerable to the change and that there haven't been any systems put in place that would allow the Roma to protect themselves against poverty. The answer must be to integrate the Roma into mainstream society. and the way to do it is with education and tackling some of the more extreme forms of depravation in housing, in access to jobs for their parents."

Gordon Alexander insists that the problems that Roma children in southeast Europe are confronted have only been insufficiently addressed by local communities and central governments with the Roma themselves being unable to make their voices heard.

"Their lack of progress may be to do with their lack of voice in society. Many Roma are not organised in a political setting. I think also politicians, leaders they have had a lot of things on their mind, whether they have been joining the EU. And somewhere in that process the Roma have not been able to find advantage in terms of dealing with that situation. And Roma children are particularly vulnerable."

In Germany, the situation of Roma children is alarming too. The collection of ethnic data is prohibited here, and the absence of reliable statistics has posed a serious challenge to establish the scope of discrimination. But according to a separate UNICEF study, Roma children in Germany face serious disadvantages in access to education. A disproportionate rate of kids with a Roma background ends up in special schools for underachievers, due to a lack of pre-schooling and insufficient knowledge of German. An added irritation for the 50,000 Roma refugees from the Balkans is their insecure status of residence in Germany. Families live in constant fear of being sent back home, and they enjoy restricted civil rights, says Reinhard Schlagintweit from UNICEF, Germany.

"The depth of prejudices and stereotypes is so great that as far is work and housing is concerned they still face discrimination. I think the anti-discrimination laws are a help but they are not the central tool, the central tool is schooling and somehow also information. We have to be open for the problem, for the dangers which could arise if the Roma stay the lowest lowest stratum in our society."

In the past, human rights organisations have often highlighted cases of racially , motivated violence against Roma people by private actors as well as mistreatment by law enforcement officers. Also, young Roma have reported about enormous difficulties in getting access to the German labour market.

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Tags civil liberties, minority, roma

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