The Roma: Europe’s Most Hated Minority The Romani people are an ethnic group, native to India, who reside in Europe. They are widely recognized as one of the European Union's largest minority groups. It is estimated that there are more than 10 million Roma living in Europe (Brown). Since they arrived in Europe about a thousand years ago, the Roma have been targets of discrimination and oppression. Even today, “...one in three Roma in Europe are unemployed and 90% live below the poverty line, according to the European Union Agency for Fundamental Human Rights” (Simpson). The rights of the Romani people must be protected, and European governments should do much more to protect the people.
The Romas were displaced from their native Northern …show more content…
Countless Roma families there were forced to live for more than ten years in vile and filthy United Nations camps built on toxic wasteland that seeped lead, which poisoned their children. In an opinion from a human rights advisory panel that is part of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo, the peacekeeping operation known as Unmik, found that the UN had failed to fulfil its obligation to protect the Romas who were forced into the camps after a war broke out in 1998 between Serbia and ethnic Albanian separatists who sought an independent Kosovo. Another example of systematic discrimination is currently happening in the Czech Republic. In a report from 2015, Amnesty International claims that, on a regular basis, Romani children are the victims of segregation and other discriminatory practices in schools as a result of the Czech government’s ever-prevailing negligence in regards to deeply ingrained prejudice within the education system. Some of the segregational practices against Romani children include: placement of the children in mainstream education in separate classes, buildings and schools which ar Roma-only, along with being plopped in schools for pupils with “mild mental disabilities” with reduced learning abilities. Roughly one-third the of students enrolled in these supposed “practical schools” are Roma, in spite of the fact that the Romani community makes up less than 3% of the Czech Republic’s population. One student named Andrej was involuntarily placed in a “practical school” when he was in the 5th grade. At the time the article was published he was 15, and told Amnesty International that he didn’t understand that he was being moved to a school designated for those with mental disabilities. “They make idiots of us at the practical school. It’s really easy. They teach slower and I don’t think I can go to a good high school from here,” he said. Along with being forced
The Romas were displaced from their native Northern …show more content…
Countless Roma families there were forced to live for more than ten years in vile and filthy United Nations camps built on toxic wasteland that seeped lead, which poisoned their children. In an opinion from a human rights advisory panel that is part of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo, the peacekeeping operation known as Unmik, found that the UN had failed to fulfil its obligation to protect the Romas who were forced into the camps after a war broke out in 1998 between Serbia and ethnic Albanian separatists who sought an independent Kosovo. Another example of systematic discrimination is currently happening in the Czech Republic. In a report from 2015, Amnesty International claims that, on a regular basis, Romani children are the victims of segregation and other discriminatory practices in schools as a result of the Czech government’s ever-prevailing negligence in regards to deeply ingrained prejudice within the education system. Some of the segregational practices against Romani children include: placement of the children in mainstream education in separate classes, buildings and schools which ar Roma-only, along with being plopped in schools for pupils with “mild mental disabilities” with reduced learning abilities. Roughly one-third the of students enrolled in these supposed “practical schools” are Roma, in spite of the fact that the Romani community makes up less than 3% of the Czech Republic’s population. One student named Andrej was involuntarily placed in a “practical school” when he was in the 5th grade. At the time the article was published he was 15, and told Amnesty International that he didn’t understand that he was being moved to a school designated for those with mental disabilities. “They make idiots of us at the practical school. It’s really easy. They teach slower and I don’t think I can go to a good high school from here,” he said. Along with being forced