News

Czech Labor Ministry says homelessness will not rise because of housing benefit ambiguity

11.7.2015 18:27 The Czech Labor and Social Affairs Ministry issued a press release at the end of June on the current situation regarding the disbursal of housing benefits. News server Romea.cz publishes it in full below, followed by a response from the Union of Cities and Municipalities.  full story

Portugal releases its first national Roma survey

11.7.2015 0:39 News server theportugalnews.com reports that the first-ever national study of the Roma in Portugal was published at the end of June. Its findings include the information that Portuguese Roma have little formal education, marry young, and mainly work in fairs.  full story

Czech Republic: Karlovy Vary International Film Festival features dramas about Roma

10.7.2015 23:50 Peter Baláž, a former Olympic athlete and boxing champion many times over, has played himself in a melancholy boxing film by Ivan Ostrochovský called "Koza" (Goat). Baláž was present on 6 July for the screening of the film in the Grand Thermal Hall at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival.  full story

Poland: Roma Caravan commemorates Holocaust

10.7.2015 22:05 The unmarked graves of hundreds of Romani people murdered during WWII are scattered throughout Poland, according to Adam Bartosz, curator of the Regional Museum in Tarnów. One mass grave of Romani victims in Szczurowa village (Małopolska province) is probably the largest, containing 93 people, as almost the entire Romani settlement was killed and buried there.  full story

Czech Justice Ministry offers unused building with 580 beds for refugees

10.7.2015 20:06 The Czech Justice Ministry can provide a building in Vyšní Lhoty (Frýdek-Místek district) for the reception of refugees. The ministry had originally considered turning the facility into a prison but would like to use it as a refugee center instead.  full story

Pope Francis asks forgiveness for crimes against indigenous people and criticizes "new colonialism"

10.7.2015 18:30 "I humbly ask forgiveness, not just for the sins of the Church itself, but also for crimes committed committed against the indigenous inhabitants during the so-called settling of America," Pope Francis told an applauding crowd during a world meeting of movements representing impoverished people in the Bolivian town of Santa Cruz. The Pope acknowledged that "in the name of God", serious sins had been perpetrated against indigenous people.  full story

Czech mayor disagrees with study finding an excluded locality in his town

10.7.2015 17:20 On 3 July the Mayor of Milovice, ing. Milan Pour, posted his official standpoint on the town's website about the results of the recent Analysis of Socially Excluded Localities in the Czech Republic, a research project commissioned by the Czech Labor and Social Affairs Ministry and produced by the GAC, s.r.o. company. The mayor's statement says that the factual extent of the area which might be considered excluded does not provide a basis for including Milovice among towns with socially excluded localities, as "this concerns a part of town where approximately 160 -180 persons showing signs of social exclusion live".  full story

EU-28 ministers have not yet reached full agreement on refugee redistribution

10.7.2015 16:19 Interior Ministers of the Member States of the European Union were unable to fully reach agreement yesterday on how they will redistribute 40 000 asylum seekers currently in Greece and Italy throughout the EU over the next two years. Jean Asselborn, the Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of Luxembourg, which currently presides over the EU, is convinced that agreement will be reached at the next meeting on 20 July.  full story

Czech prosecutor finds no evidence that radical Islamic book disseminates racism

9.7.2015 22:46 Czech Television reports that prosecutors have returned the case of an allegedly radical Islamic book said to have been disseminating racism back to police for further investigation. Jan Lelek, head of the Prague 1 District State Prosecutor, confirmed the information to the Czech News Agency.  full story

Roma in Denmark, Norway and Sweden not being "run" by organized crime

9.7.2015 22:06 News server west-info.eu, which reports on European welfare policies, say a new report from Fafo, a Scandinavian social research foundation, has found no evidence that Romani people in Denmark, Norway and Sweden are being managed by organized crime. The report contradicts claims that Romani people are being trafficked into those countries.  full story

Czech Labor Minister plans Internet subsidy for the socially vulnerable

9.7.2015 21:27 Czech Minister for Labor and Social Affairs Michaela Marksová-Tominová (Czech Social Democratic Party - ČSSD) is planning to subsidize reduced Internet rates for the socially vulnerable. "The aim is for people at risk of social exclusion to be able to use digital technology to improve their position in society," Jiří Vaňásek, director of the ministry's Labor Market Department, told news server iHNED.cz.  full story

Hungary adopts law allowing construction of fence against immigrants

9.7.2015 19:53 Reuters reports that the Hungarian Parliament adopted a law on 6 July tightening conditions for granting asylum and allowing the construction of a fence on the border with Serbia to halt the influx of immigrants entering the country illegally. The new law shortens the time for evaluating asylum requests and facilitates the rejection of applications from immigrants who have passed through a so-called "safe country" where they were not in serious danger while fleeing, for example, Afghanistan, Iraq or Syria.  full story

Czech Police: Shooter was a juvenile, no indications yet of extremism playing a role

9.7.2015 18:55 The person suspected of having shot at a bus full of people on Tuesday evening in the Czech town of Plzeň is a 15-year-old youth, according to police. The suspect was apprehended by detectives less than 24 hours after the crime was committed and is now in a police cell.  full story

ERRC publishes Roma Rights issue honoring the late Nicolae Gheorghe

9.7.2015 16:39 The current issue of Roma Rights, the journal of the European Roma Rights Centre, is dedicated to the life and work of the late Nicolae Gheorghe. Guest editor Nicoleta Bitu compiled the issue.  full story

Czech Police arrest suspected shooter, investigate whether foreigners were his target

9.7.2015 16:06 he Czech Police have arrested a man suspected of have fired at a public bus on Tuesday in the Bory quarter of Plzeň. They also confiscated the weapon that was probably used in the shooting.  full story

Czech Gov't Roma Commission: Municipal consent to housing benefits must be abolished

9.7.2015 5:43 The Czech Government Inter-ministerial Commission on Roma Community Affairs, which is chaired by Czech Minister for Human Rights, Equal Opportunities and Legislation Jiří Dienstbier, convened last week and joined those institutions and politicians demanding a new amendment to the law on aid to those in material distress. As of May, local municipalities, not Labor Offices, have been empowered to decide whether housing benefits applications should be awarded.  full story

Croatia: 500 stateless persons are mostly Roma

9.7.2015 4:12 News server dalje.com reports that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates there are approximately 500 stateless persons in Croatia and twice as many at risk of statelessness. They have no citizenship or personal identification and are therefore unable to exercise their rights, find jobs, get married or apply for health insurance.  full story

Czech Republic: Art show about Hodonín concentration camp for Roma opens in Prague

9.7.2015 3:40 On Tuesday, 30 June an exhibition of art by Michaela Pospíšilová-Králová entitled "As If It Never Existed" ("Jako by nikdy neexistoval") about the concentration camp for Roma at Hodonín by Kunštát opened at Café v Lese in Prague (Krymská 12, Vršovice). The opening featured a lecture by Markus Pape, a German journalist living in Prague who has long studied the topic of the Roma Holocaust.  full story

Canada accused of racially profiling Roma travellers from Hungary at European airport

9.7.2015 0:28 In an echo of the approach taken by the UK toward Romani air passengers from the Czech Republic in 2001, Romani citizens of Hungary say Canadian border officials are stopping them in Europe from boarding flights to Canada, according to thestar.com. Romani author Eva Kalla (age 60), a citizen of Hungary, was stopped at the airport in Vienna and referred to a Canadian border official who refused to let her fly to Toronto - even though EU citizens need no visas to do so.  full story

Czech Police now agree that "a gallows has no place in a democracy"

8.7.2015 22:30 Speakers at last week's anti-immigration demonstration in the center of Prague may have committed a felony. That is the conclusion of the police officers who have studied the documentation materials and speeches given at previous assemblies of a similar nature.  full story