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THE UNTOUCHABLES A Survey o f the Roma People of Central and Eastern Europe
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A Heport to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Mark Braham
THE UNTOUCHABLES
A Survey of the Roma People of Central and Eastern Europe A Report to the Office o f die U n ited N ation s H igh C om m ission er for Refugees Mark Braham March 1993
The opinions offered in this document are those of the author or his sources, and imply no responsibility on the part of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. © 1993 The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCI^
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THE UNTOUCHABLES
A SURVEY OF THE ROMA PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE M ark B rah am E x e c u t iv e Su m m a r y This survey, necessarily com paa, attempts to synthesize information from seven weeks o f library and field research undertaken during October and November o f 1992 and further enquiries since that time. It concerns the background and present condition of the Roma people (Gypsies) of Central and Eastern Europe - specifically in Romania,’ Hungary, the Czech and Slovak Republics and Poland, and Roma asylum seekers in Germany. As the allotted time was short, and the reliability o f information sometimes question able, there can be no pretence that this work has been undertaken within the canons of accuracy of the social sciences. 1 believe, however, that there is sufficient coherence in the information that has been received to justify the overall conclusions and recommen dations indicated in the final chapter. In sum: 1.
There are perhaps six million Roma people inhabiting Central and Eastern Europe (not including some 550,000 in the CIS), the majority o f whom live close to, or well below, the poverty line for their respective countries;
2. They are, for the most part, an ‘underclass’: undereducated, unskilled, unemployed, ’in poor health, primitively housed, and subject to both passive and active ethnic prejudice. They are a ‘third-world’ people, living under ‘third-world’ conditions in the ‘second world’. They are Europe’s ‘untouchables’. If the Roma were citizens o f a third-world nation they would be eligible for international development aid. 3. Should their situation further deteriorate, as it may well do without intemadonal assistance, the Roma are increasingly liable to become ‘scapegoats’ for the growing numbers o f non-Roma who, facing the decline of their national economies, look for those upon whom they can vent dieir fhistration and anger. In the short period following the collapse of communism, die Roma have become principal targets o f nationalist and neo-fascist sentiments as the psychopathology o f ‘ethnic cleansing’ now spreads its way across Central and Eastern Europe. 4. Central and Eastern European governments, faced with deepening economic and political crises, and conditioned by centuries-old public antipathy towards the Roma, appear to be unable - perhaps even unwilling - to provide the protection and assistance their respective Roma populations require. By default, if not by in tention, they may be fomenting increasingly violent confrontations between Roma and non-Roma leading to widespread social conflict. It has been to escape such conflict diat a number o f Roma people now in the "West have fled their countries. 5. Despite the recent appearance of numbers of Roma associations across Central and Eastern Europe, reports suggest that for the most part they are too new, too frag mented, under-financed and, with notable exceptions, too inexperienced to conceive and implement the required strategies for change without international assistance. The Roma are not prepared for the coming century’s technological society.
6.
While no widespread Roma interest in a westward migration œ uld be ascertained, iurther deterioration in their circumstances may well create asylum pressures as ethnic prejudice not only subjects them to physical violence, but further under mines their economic and cultural survival.
7.
Although U N H C R ’s traditional role has been directed towards the protection and assistance of asylum seekers after their flight from actual or perceived danger, present circumstances may require this role to be reconsidered. The 1951 Convention and later Protocols, upon which it is based, may prove to be too restrictive to deal with the failure of governments to protect their citizens and other residents from racist attacks and the ethnically prejudicial circumstances that deprive them o f the opportunities for gainful employment and appropriate conditions o f health, educar tion, shelter and welfare.
8.
Based on the observations and conclusions of this survey, a series of recommenda tions towards improving the effectiveness o f U N H C R ’s protection o f and assistance to asylum seekers such as the Roma have been made. They are outlined following this summary, and are fully discussed in Chapter Seven.
9.
Within the context of the recommendations, it is suggested that U N H C R could undertake a preventive role, through the use o f its ‘good offices’ to intercede with governments, and by initiating and coordinating comprehensive humanitarian inter agency programmes o f asylum mitigation. It is recommended that U N H C R convene a Round-Table Strategy Meeting on the problems o f European Roma, com prising effective representation from appropriate United Nations agencies: Centre for Human Rights, FAO, 1Ю , UNDP, U N E SC O , U N IC EF, U N R ISD and U N V ; the Council o f Europe; EEC; C SC E ; IFRCS; interior ministries o f Western asylum and Central and Eastern states, and representatives o f essential Roma organizations, in order to instigate the preparation and implementation o f needed action.
10. O n the basis o f discussions held while undertaking this survey, it is also suggested that consideration be given to initiating three levels o f activity: 10.1 An inter-disciplinary European Commission for Roma Affairs. The task o f the Commissioner would be to oversee the implementation o f die international and constitutional provisions to guarantee the Roma their rights as a recognized ethnic minority in each country; to seek to assure that all states concerned honour these rights; to negotiate with national governments concerning such rights, and to assist in the preparation o f such additional international and national legislation as may be required. 10.2 A European Roma Institute under the direction o f the European Commission for Roma Affairs to bring together the expertise already extant in the international community to concentrate on the following five areas o f research and developv ment which it will then make available to the National Roma Institutes. Such an Institute should concern itself with the following sectors: A. Economy, Employment & Regional Development; B. Human Development, Education, Science & Culture; C . Human Rights, Law, Protection & Jurisprudence; D . Community Health & Welfare, Medicine & Sanitation; E. Urban & Rural Habitats.
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10.3 A NatioTxal Roma Institute in each European state according to the size o f its Roma population, and not restricted to nations o f Central and Eastern Europe. The function of each insdtute would be to undertake research and development in the same five areas designated for the European Roma Insdtute, upon whose re sources it can draw, but in specific applicadon to its own nadonal situadon. M .B.
SUMMARY OF R e c o m m e n d a t i o n s (From Chapter Seven) that UNHCR consider the forms of ‘in