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RIGHTS: Roma Seek to Flee Czech Republic
By Zoltán Dujisin
BUDAPEST, Apr 30 (IPS) - The situation of Roma in the Czech Republic has always been bad, but growing
right-wing extremism has taken tensions to new levels, driving many to seek
asylum in Canada.
Roma organisations have called on those Roma who feel unsafe in the
country to leave. There are up to 300,000 Roma living in the Czech Republic,
that has a population of 10 million.
Roma, often also called gypsies, are a people believed to have migrated to
Europe from India since the 14th century.
At least 853 mostly ethnic Roma Czech citizens have applied for refugee
status in Canada over the last year, and 84 have obtained it. But in only the
first two months of 2009, there are already new 570 Czechs, mostly Roma,
seeking asylum there.
This is the second wave of Czech Roma seeking to flee to Canada after a
similar wave in the late 1990s.
Czech media has claimed that the migrations are economically motivated and
promoted by mediators who tell Romanies to exaggerate their experiences of
racial discrimination in the Czech Republic and personally profit from their
asylum applications.
Canada has asked the Czech government to investigate the allegations as the
mediators are allegedly Czech and Slovaks émigrés to Canada.
In statements to the press, Radmila Locher from the Czechs and Slovaks'
association in Canada has denied any knowledge of such emigration being
organised.
The calls for Roma to leave the country were heightened after some people
threw Molotov cocktails on a house inhabited by a Roma family in Vitkov in
the north-eastern Czech Republic.
The attack left three injured, including a two-year-old child who suffered 80
percent burns and is in critical condition.
In reaction Roma leaders issued a joint statement calling for the formation of
patrols to protect themselves from "terrorist attacks by Czechs," leading to
fears of a spiral of violence.
Ivan Vesely, chairman of the Dzeno Association, a Prague-based non-
governmental group dealing with Roma issues, told IPS that the intention is
only to start a "monitoring patrol, in cooperation with social workers, Roma
activists and the police to prevent conflict between Roma and extremists."
The recent attacks were sharply condemned by Prime Minister Mirek
Topolanek and President Vaclav Klaus, but the political leaders are accused
of having allowed tensions to degenerate for too long.
Politicians may fear a public opinion that tends to be unsympathetic towards
the Roma, especially in times of crisis.
"The problem is deep, the majority population is unsatisfied with its personal
living conditions, with the crisis, the growing unemployment, and it is trying
to find a target in the Roma," Vesely told IPS.
An estimated two-thirds of Czechs see coexistence with Roma as a problem,
according to polls, and nowhere has this been more obvious than in the now
ill-famed Janov housing estate in Litvinov in the northern Czech Republic,
the scene of many clashes between extremists targeting the Roma and the
police.
Supporters of the far-right Workers Party have held regular marches in the
housing estate, distributing leaflets to non-Roma residents and handing
them questionnaires.
Janov, home to about 6,000, has come to epitomise what many see as the
misguided Czech integration policy for the Roma: the Litvinov town hall has
given up on many of its social responsibilities, instead hastily offering flats
to real estate companies that profit from moving poor families from around
the country into the estate.
This has created tensions with the original population, which cannot move
out because prices of flats in Janov have plummeted.
Extremists have seen an opportunity in Janov to go mainstream, presenting
themselves as protectors of the non-Roma inhabitants against Roma crime,
and many of the residents are supportive of their actions.
The Czech government has tried to ban the Workers Party to no avail, with
the latest attempt being refuted by the country's Supreme Court, citing lack
of evidence.
Government officials are becoming worried at the increased activity,
organisation and support for extreme-right movements and parties in the
country, and Roma organisations feel it is time to join forces and raise public
awareness on the issue.
"We have prepared protests in ten Czech cities for May 3, to show
to the majority population that we must fight together against neo-Nazism
and fascism in the Czech Republic," Vesely told IPS.
Roma complain of discrimination at work, and access to education, housing
and services, but little can be done in the only EU country lacking an anti-
discrimination law.
Millions of euros have been spent on Roma integration programmes with
little result, and the number of poor Roma families living in ghettos has
actually increased.
The Government Council for Romany Affairs, subordinated to minister for
human rights and minorities Michael Kocab, has only five staff members, and
lacks political support, leaving solutions to unprepared municipalities.
Local authorities have sold municipal and social housing to private owners,
relocating problematic centres to just a few spots that eventually develop
into ghettoes.
The millions poured in by the EU (European Union) have even caused some
damage as they reinforce the majority population's general view of the Roma
as living off aid, even though Roma groups often lack the know-how to
apply for EU grants. (END/2009)
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