World

Der Spiegel: Germany doesn't want Romani people in Schengen

Berlin, 5.3.2013 16:21, (ROMEA) The latest issue of Der Spiegel magazine reports that while no one in the German government has ever officially stated the policy (and probably never will), it is completely evident whom it targets: Germany has been rattled by the immigration of Romani people from Bulgaria and Romania, which is why it doesn't want to open its doors to citizens from the two poorest states on Europe's border.  full story

Greece: Neo-Nazi agitators focusing on six-year-olds

Greece, 4.3.2013 23:53, (ROMEA) Czech news server Týden.cz reports that the ultra-right Golden Dawn Party in Greece is now targeting children between six and 10 years of age. The party's main aim is to provide the children with a "spiritual awakening".  full story

ROMEA joins declaration of solidarity with Syrian civilians

Prague, 1.3.2013 23:25, (ROMEA) The ROMEA association has joined an initiative expressing solidarity with civilians in Syria afflicted by the armed conflict that has been ongoing there for some time. Through its declarations (an open letter and a petition) the initiative is calling on Czech politicians, the European Union and the United Nations to open cross-border corridors for humanitarian aid, mainly from Turkey. Today aid is primarily not reaching the people living in northern Syria on territory in the hands of the opposition. Below please find the full translation of the declaration:  full story

Slovakia: Police raid extremists

Bratislava, Slovakia, 1.3.2013 22:35, (ROMEA) News server Aktuálně.sk reports that the Slovak Police have performed several house searches around the country during which they confiscated electronic equipment and extremist-themed clothing. Ten people have now been charged.


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Slovak PM heavily criticized for his comments about minorities

Bratislava, Slovakia, 28.2.2013 23:48, (ROMEA) Representatives of the European People's Party and the socialist faction at the EP, as well as representatives of national minorities in Slovakia, are criticizing Slovak PM Robert Fico for saying that minorities in his country are trying to extort the state through minority rights. Fico said yesterday that ethnic minorities, minority opinion-holders and national minorities are looking for handouts while refusing to meet their obligations to the state. He insisted that these practices must change and that Slovaks did not establish an independent state in order to privilege minorities.  full story

Slovak PM sharply criticizes minorities

Martin, Slovakia, 28.2.2013 16:59, (ROMEA) A dispute has flared up in Slovakia over whether bus stops and railway stations in areas predominantly inhabited by the Hungarian minority should be labeled bilingually. Slovak PM Robert Fico added fuel to the fire yesterday, saying he wants what he referred to as minority rights extortion to stop, whether it be on the part of an ethnic minority, minority opinion-holders, or the Romani minority.  full story

Czechs fathering children with non-EU mothers could face DNA tests

Prague, 27.2.2013 23:48, (ROMEA) Czech men who father a child with a foreign woman from a non-EU country may be required to undergo DNA testing as of next year. If they have not married the mother of their daughter or son and want their child to have Czech citizenship, they may first have to prove their paternity. A draft law on citizenship under discussion in the lower house has proposed the measure.  full story

Slovakia: Two men charged with assaulting black basketball player

Nitra, Slovakia, 27.2.2013 22:56, (ROMEA) Police in the Slovak town of Nitra charged two 21-year-old men yesterday with attacking Jean Rony Cadot, a black basketball player for the Nitra team. The assault was sparked by an argument in the Devil's Pub in Nitra after someone spilled a drink on Cadot's pants there.  full story

Czech EdMin to research number of children educated as disabled

Prague, 26.2.2013 16:38, (ROMEA) News server iDNES.cz reports that the Czech Education Ministry wants to find out how many pupils are being taught according to an educational program for children with "light brain dysfunction". The Czech Republic has long faced criticism that it enrolls large numbers of Romani pupils into what were once called the "special schools" who do not belong there. Better record-keeping is one step toward correcting the situation.  full story

Slovakia: Two settlement children die in the ruins of an unoccupied building

Lomnička, Slovakia, 26.2.2013 2:10, (ROMEA) The Slovak Republic Press Agency (Tisková agentura Slovenské republiky - TASR) reports that two children died just after 12 PM yesterday in the village of Lomnička (Stará Ľubovňa district). The children were buried by the collapsed ruins of an unoccupied building in their settlement. Pavol Vravec, the operations commander for the Regional Directorate of the Emergency and Firefighting Corps in Prešov, said seven firefighters intervened at the scene using heat-seeking cameras to search the ruins for survivors.  full story

US clinic keeps black staff away from white newborn

Detroit, Michigan, USA, 23.2.2013 20:28, (ROMEA) Several black nurses recently filed charges against a clinic in the US state of Michigan after its management acceded to an illegal request to ban black staff from coming into contact with a hospitalized patient. The Associated Press reports that it is an "open secret" that health care facilities in the USA often make it possible for patients to refuse treatment by doctors and nurses who are not of their same race.  full story

Right-wing British press warns of "beggar" influx in 2014

Boston, UK, 23.2.2013 18:36, (ROMEA) Agence France-Presse reports that the town of Boston in Great Britain has begun to resemble a small corner of Eastern Europe, where butcher shops feature wreaths of Polish kielbasa and vodka on the shelves and people converse in Latvian and Lithuanian on the street. According to the latest census, more than 10 % of the inhabitants of the quiet little town in the county of Lincolnshire in eastern England is from one of the formerly communist countries that joined the European Union at the start of the millennium.  full story

Commentary: Martin Luther King, Jr's testament for Romani people

Prague, 22.2.2013 22:11, (ROMEA) This piece was composed as an introductory contribution to a debate about Martin Luther King, Jr in Prague that was convened by the American Center and the Slon publishing house, which has released the first selection of Dr King's works in Czech translation.  full story

Italy: Two Romani people die in fire, investigation ongoing

Giugliano, Italy, 22.2.2013 19:16, (ROMEA) Two Romani people from Eastern Europe, most probably from Romania, died this week in a fire that destroyed three shanties at a "Gypsy campsite" in the Neapolitan town of Giugliano.  full story

Slovak PM wants Romani children to attend boarding schools

Bratislava, Slovakia, 21.2.2013 23:26, (ROMEA) Slovak PM Fico is proposing what he has himself termed "extreme measures" for Romani children, namely, that they be educated at boarding schools. Peter Pollak, the Slovak Government Plenipotentiary for the Romani Community, does not agree with this solution.  full story

Hungary: Swastikas, SS symbols legal to display as of May

Budapest, Hungary, 21.2.2013 23:03, (ROMEA) On Tuesday, the Hungarian Constitutional Court abolished a statute banning the public use of symbols of totalitarian power. The symbols concerned are the hammer and sickle, the Nazi swastika, and the red five-pointed star. The court said the ban violated the right to freedom of speech and was not worded precisely enough  full story

Commentary: The difference between Czech and French politicians

Prague, 21.2.2013 19:27, (ROMEA) This is really interesting: One comment by Maurice Taylor, head of the American firm Titan International, about the work morale of the French employees of a Goodyear factory has upset almost all of France. Taylor wrote to the French Government that "French employees receive high wages but work only three hours. They get hour-long breaks for snacks and lunch, talk for three hours and work for three." He went on to add that he is no longer interested in French workers or preserving the factory in France and would therefore be closing it.  full story

Czech neo-Nazis on trial can't remember a thing

Brno, 20.2.2013 22:07, (ROMEA) A group of 17 right-wing extremists on trial before the District Court in Brno-venkov is rejecting the charges filed against them of promoting Nazism and racism. They face up to eight years in prison if convicted.  full story

Germany: Extremist National Socialists banned in Saxony

Saxony, Germany, 18.2.2013 18:20, (ROMEA) The authorities of the eastern German state of Saxony, which borders the Czech Republic, have banned the ultra-right National Socialists Döbeln association. Deutsche Presse-Agentur reports that detectives have been performing house searches of the leading members of the organization since this morning. The neo-Nazi group allegedly violated the constitutional order and used Nazi rhetoric and symbols, thereby confirming its affiliation with Nazism.  full story

Attila Lakatos: Romani people must be given work

Budapest, Hungary, 18.2.2013 0:01, (ROMEA) News server Českápozice.cz has published an interview with Attila Lakatos, a Romani leader from the impoverished district of Borsod in northeastern Hungary. News server Romea.cz publishes it in full translation below.  full story