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European Roma and Travellers Forum launches website for Roma Holocaust commemorations

27.7.2015 20:39 To mark the 71st anniversary of the Holocaust of the Roma (Pharrajimos) during WWII, the European Roma and Travellers Forum (ERTF) has launched a website, www.2august.ertf.org. The NGO is calling for collaboration on establishing a "centralized information point" about this history.  full story

Another Czech town's ban on sitting outdoors takes effect

27.7.2015 19:32 In mid-July a "Generally Binding Ordinance on securing local affairs of public order and improving the town's appearance" took effect in the Czech town of Bílina. The ordinance names activities that are banned because they could disturb public order or contravene good morals, the protection of public health, property and safety, or because they could disturb the town's aesthetic appearance.  full story

Yet another Czech tabloid news server perpetrates a racist hoax

26.7.2015 20:53 On 16 July the European Court of Justice (ECJ) announced a significant finding in the area of racial discrimination. The court did not pronounce judgment on anyone, but merely expressed a legal opinion which an EU Member State court should now follow.  full story

Czech, Polish and Slovak neo-Nazis protest migrants in Ostrava, target Roma area - 63 right-wing extremists detained

25.7.2015 22:02 Two demonstrations were held in the center of Ostrava today, one in support of receiving refuguees and against xenophobia, and the other, organized by football hooligans and neo-Nazis, against receiving refugees. After both events were officially ended, some anti-immigrant demonstrators attempted to make their way into the Přívoz quarter, where many Romani people live.  full story

Andrzej Mirga, Roma Education Fund's new chair, on the European Roma Institute and more

25.7.2015 19:40 Andrzej Mirga, previously Senior Adviser on Roma and Sinti Issues at the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the OSCE, has recently been appointed chair of the Roma Education Fund. Mr Mirga has a long record as a civic and human rights activist, having co-founded Poland's first Romani association after the fall of communism.  full story

Czech broadcasting board criticizes TV NOVA for promoting anti-hate campaign

25.7.2015 3:12 News server Mediář, which reports on the Czech media, has broken the news that the Czech Council for Radio and Television Broadcasting (RRTV) is criticizing the TV NOVA station for disproportionately emphasizing a "product", namely, the HateFree sticker that business owners can put in their windows, specifically as part of its series "Ulice" ("The Street"). The HateFree project, which is managed by the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion, has purchased an advertising package of broadcasting times that include product placement of the campaign within the series and has paid roughly CZK 400 000 [EUR 14 800] for the spots so far.  full story

Macedonia: BUVERO Camp for young Romani women underway

25.7.2015 0:21 The National Roma Centrum of Macedonia is running a BUVERO camp at Etno Selo in Kumanovo. Together with mentors from Hungary's Romedia Foundation, they have been instructing Romani women aged 18-25 in "citizen journalism".  full story

Czech research shows appropriate jobs often inaccessible to the unemployed

24.7.2015 23:04 An oft-repeated prejudice in the Czech Republic is that those who receive welfare don't want to work. Just-published research, however, refutes this thesis and finds that many welfare recipients also work in various temporary jobs or without employment contracts, cobbling together an income from a large number of insecure sources.  full story

Austria bans hidden Islamist and Nazi codes on license plates

24.7.2015 20:15 The daily Kleine Zeitung reports that yesterday an amendment came into effect in Austria banning the use of hidden Nazi codes on personalized license plates. The original list of banned abbreviations such as HJ (for the youth organization Hitlerjugend), NSDAP (for the Nazi party) and SS (for the elite Nazi fighting unit) was expanded to include, for example, the number 420, referencing 20 April, Hitler's birthday.  full story

Czech school director says closing the "practical schools" is unreasonable

23.7.2015 1:17 The Czech town of Kostelec nad Orlicí has a population of 6 000 and a diverse composition in terms of nationalities. A refugee camp is located there and a large Romani community lives there as well.  full story

Bulgaria: Nationalists exert political pressure to override suspension of Romani home demolitions

22.7.2015 21:59 The BBC reports that nationalist parties in Bulgaria are pressuring for the continuation of the demolition of two Romani settlements which has temporarily been suspended by the European Court of Human Rights. Non-Romani residents of the town at issue, Garmen, also marched in the capital over the weekend to demand the demolitions go forward.  full story

Romani mothers in small Czech town describe constant daily alienation

22.7.2015 19:03 The Czech town of Kostelec nad Orlicí has a population of 6 000 and a diverse composition in terms of nationalities. A refugee camp is located there and a large Romani community lives there as well.  full story

Ireland: Roma immigrant challenges state's refusal to award her welfare

22.7.2015 0:35 The Irish Times reports that a Roma citizen of Romania with two young children is suing Ireland's Department of Social Protection for refusing to award her various welfare benefits, claiming the refusal is a violation of EU law. Her counsel, Derek Shorthall, told the High Court that the case raises "very weighty legal issues".  full story

Czech Gov't plans program to demolish condemned ghetto buildings without EU strings

21.7.2015 23:41 The Czech Regional Development Ministry is designing a program to aid municipalities with demolishing ruined buildings. "The demolition of these buildings is a partial contribution to addressing the situation in socially excluded localities," Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka (Czech Social Democratic Party) said today during a visit to Ústí nad Labem.  full story

Germany: Hundreds of Roma protest their deportation

21.7.2015 22:46 According to a press release from the alle-bleiben.info organization, on Saturday, 18 July, 600 people assembled in Hamburg, Germany to protest the deportation of Roma refugees back to their home countries. Demonstrators demanded an end to the deportations of all Roma, the right to remain in Germany, interpreters who speak Romanes to be provided during official interactions, unrestricted work permits for detainees, earlier opportunities to move out of detention centers, and that officials pay attention to refugees' medical reports.  full story

Czech Republic: Romani children in a small town discuss the "special school"

21.7.2015 20:00 The Czech town of Kostelec nad Orlicí has a population of 6 000 and a diverse composition in terms of nationalities. A refugee camp is located there and a large Romani community lives there as well.  full story

Commentary: Football still trumps immigration demonstrations for the Czech public

21.7.2015 1:12 On Saturday in Prague we saw demonstrations against receiving refugees and in favor of receiving them. These events struck me as bizarre and a bit tragicomic.
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EU interior ministers offer 8 000 fewer places than needed for refugee redistribution

20.7.2015 23:32 EU-28 interior ministers did not manage to fully agree today on the redistribution of 40 000 asylum seekers currently located in Greece and Italy. Czech Interior Minister Milan Chovanec said the EU-28 states have offered to redistribute only 32 000 people during the next two years.  full story

Hungary: Demonstration against fence on Serbian border says "Jesus was a refugee too"

20.7.2015 19:57 Reuters reports that approximately 1 000 people demonstrated on 14 July in the center of Budapest against the construction of a fence on the border with Serbia that is supposed to prevent immigrants from entering Hungary. The declaration of the civic initiatives who organized the demonstration reads as follows: "As far as the construction of the wall goes, the Hungarian Government seems to exceptionally competent. The Government is erecting ever-newer walls between the various layers of society... It is blowing up bridges between politics and society... After so many symbolic walls it has now, at the height of its own cynicism, arrived at an actual wall... There have been enough walls - let's instead build hospitals, houses and schools for Hungarians and immigrants! Asylum seekers are neither angels nor devils but human beings, and as such they have a right to humane treatment and a dignified reception procedure... The money allocated to build this wall is already, at this phase of design planning, the equivalent of the entire budget of the Hungarian state for refugee matters for the last 11 years."  full story

Commentary: Czech Police not living up to their motto

20.7.2015 18:26 Even though I have long had no illusions about how that notorious motto of the Czech Police, "To assist and protect", can sometimes work in practice, during Saturday's demonstrations on Wenceslas Square I could not believe my eyes. Honor is of course due to the officers who kept the enraged, fanatical neo-Nazis away from the people expressing solidarity with refugees that evening (which is, after all, their job), but I would like to discuss my experience with those of their colleagues who did not lift a finger when I directly asked them for assistance.  full story