News

Czech elections: Social Democrats gain only slight lead over ANO 2011

Czech Republic, 26.10.2013 19:10, (ROMEA) The elections to the lower house have once again been won by the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD) with only a slight margin of victory, just like the elections of three years ago. The ANO 2011 political movement ended up closely behind the ČSSD.  full story

Czech Republic: Neo-Nazis to march on state holiday Monday

Plzeň, 26.10.2013 18:45, (ROMEA) Neo-Nazis are scheduled to march through several towns in the Czech Republic on the state holiday Monday, including Ostrava and Plzeň, where they are expected to march through the Bory quarter. Plzeň Police spokesperson Jana Tomková told the Czech News Agency yesterday that police are preparing security measures involving the Aliens' Police, an anti-conflict team, canine units, criminal investigators, riot police and traffic police.  full story

Greece: Another couple arrested for buying a Romani child

Athens, Greece, 26.10.2013 18:01, (ROMEA) Greek Police have begun investigating yet another case of possible child trafficking. Yesterday police representatives informed the public that they had arrested a childless couple in Athens who allegedly purchased a Romani girl just a few months old for EUR 4 000.  full story

Czech elections to the lower house underway

Czech Republic, 26.10.2013 3:07, (ROMEA) Elections to the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic began Friday 25 October. Polls opened at 14:00 and closed at 22:00. Voting will also take place on Saturday 26 October from 8:00 to 14:00.  full story

Czech Republic: Perpetrators of machete attack get up to 17.5 years

Prague, 26.10.2013 0:16, (ROMEA) Vojtěch Husák has been convicted of perpetrating an attack with a machete in Nový Bor in 2011 and will spend 17.5 years in prison, while his accomplices Antonín Sinu and Jakub Žiga will spend 15 years in prison each. The High Court in Prague handed down its verdict Friday 24 October and it has taken effect.  full story

Elena Gorolová (SRP), Romani candidate to the Czech lower house: I want to help those in need

Ostrava, 25.10.2013 23:02, (ROMEA) An unusually high number of Romani people are running in this year's early elections compared to years past. The monthly Romano voďi, published by the ROMEA association, has done its best to interview all the candidates running for the lower house and will run those interviews in addition to publishing analytical material about the elections.  full story

videoDNA tests confirm child removed from Greek Roma has Bulgarian Roma parents

Sofia, Bulgaria, 25.10.2013 17:39, (ROMEA) DNA tests have confirmed that the mother of blonde Maria, who was discovered living with a Romani couple in Greece last week, is Sasha Rusev, a Romani woman from Bulgaria. International wire services reported the source of the news as a spokesperson for the Bulgarian Interior Ministry, Svetlozar Lazarov.  full story

Štefan Tišer (SRP), Romani candidate to the Czech lower house: We have a good chance of getting in

Prague, 24.10.2013 22:36, (ROMEA) An unusually high number of Romani people are running in this year's early elections compared to years past. The monthly Romano voďi, published by the ROMEA association, has done its best to interview all the candidates running for the lower house and will run those interviews in addition to publishing analytical material about the elections.  full story

Child removed from Greek Romani family might be from Bulgarian Romani family

Athens, Greece / Sofia, Bulgaria, 24.10.2013 21:04, (ROMEA) The Bulgarian and Greek media are reporting that the little blonde girl named Maria who was found living with a Romani couple last week in central Greece could be the daughter of another Romani couple living in Bulgaria. Atanas and Sasha Rusev, a married couple, have been interrogated by the Bulgarian Police and are waiting for the results of DNA tests.  full story

Stanislav Tišer (SRP), Romani candidate to Czech lower house: I want a change of government

Prague, 24.10.2013 17:47, (ROMEA) An unusually high number of Romani people are running in this year's early elections compared to years past. The monthly Romano voďi, published by the ROMEA association, has done its best to interview all the candidates running for the lower house and will run those interviews in addition to publishing analytical material about the elections.  full story

Irresponsible media reporting on Roma propagates negative myths

24.10.2013 12:00, (ROMEA) The long-standing problem of negative media reporting on minorities has vehemently re-emerged with the cases of the children found in Roma families in Greece and Ireland. Most news reports, not only in Europe but all over the world, have insisted on the ethnicity of the families from which the children have been taken, thus propagating age-old myths portraying Roma as child-abductors” said today Nils Muižnieks, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, in an open address to journalists.  full story

Europe’s Roma Face ‘Witch-Hunt’ After Reports of Child-Snatching

Dublin, 24.10.2013 9:40, (ROMEA) A recent spate of cases involving members of the Roma community and allegations of child-snatching has shone an uncomfortable spotlight on Europe’s attitudes and treatment of the Roma, and what some are calling a “witch-hunt” against one of Europe’s largest ethnic minorities.  full story

videoEuropean panic over "white" children in Romani families

Dublin/London/Atheny, 24.10.2013 0:20, (ROMEA) Fair-skinned children in Romani families have recently been taken into temporary care by authorities in Greek and Ireland and have been threatened with such removal by members of the public in Serbia. The mention of the family's Romani ethnicity in the reporting on the Greek case has resulted in a frenzy of international media coverage.  full story

Czech Senate committee objects to EU recommendations on Roma integration

Prague, 23.10.2013 23:20, (ROMEA) The Czech Senate is refusing to introduce any social measures based on ethnicity into Czech law, claiming that neither the constitutional order nor the Czech Republic's international obligations make it possible for the state to define the recipients of social assistance according to their ethnic affiliation. That refusal is part of recommendations recently agreed to by the Senate EU Affairs Committee, which has just reviewed recommendations from the Council of the EU regarding effective Roma integration measures.  full story

videoIreland: Blonde girl taken away from Romani couple is their biological child

Dublin, Ireland, 23.10.2013 22:36, (ROMEA) The hysteria prompted by the international media reporting of Greek authorities recently removing a blonde girl from a Romani family there has now resulted in a scandalous blunder by authorities in Ireland. Police in Dublin removed a seven-year-old blonde girl from the custody of a Romani couple on Monday.  full story

Serbia: Skinheads try to abduct fair-skinned child from Romani family

Novi Sad, Serbia, 23.10.2013 17:50, (ROMEA) On 22 October news server Blic.rs reported that a group of men described as skinheads almost succeeded in abducting a two-year-old child last Saturday evening from in front of his home on Šafarikova Street in Novi Sad just because the child's skin was fairer than that of his father, Stefan Nikolić. The men accused Nikolić, who is of Romani nationality, of having stolen the child from its biological parents.  full story

Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner: Czech authorities must clearly oppose anti-Romani hate campaign

Strasbourg, France, 23.10.2013 17:10, (ROMEA) The Council of Europe's Human Rights Commissioner, Nils Muižnieks, has expressed uneasiness over the ongoing hate campaign against Romani people in the Czech Republic. Muižnieks says that campaign is manifesting itself in regular anti-Romani marches and now, prior to the elections to parliament this weekend, in displays of racism intended to gain political capital.  full story

ERIO calls for an ethical journalism free of stereotypes and prejudices

Brussels, 23.10.2013 16:07, (ROMEA) The European Roma Information Office (ERIO) is deeply concerned with and condemns the recent media coverage of the case of a Greek girl found in a Roma camp in Greece. Media is reproducing negative stereotypes and myths of Roma reinforcing prejudices that can incite racism and discrimination against these communities.  full story

Center for Romani Studies: Most Czechs do not consider Roma a natural part of society

Rokycany, 23.10.2013 1:59, (ROMEA) The Center for Romani Studies (Středisko romských studií - SRS) has produced a report summarizing its current findings in the field of Romani issues. The aim of the report is to raise the topic of antigypsyism and its impacts on the security of Romani people in the Czech Republic.  full story

Czech Republic: Right-wing extremist threatens to kill Mayor of Ostrava

Ostrava, 23.10.2013 0:29, (ROMEA) News server iDNES.cz reports that a man demanding the release of 15 aggressive demonstrators who participated in last Saturday's neo-Nazi demonstration in Ostrava has threatened to murder the Mayor of Ostrava and his family. It did not take long for police to take him into custody, where he remains.  full story