The fitness, schooling and economic measures imposed through EU Member States in the wake of the COVID crisis have largely failed to protect Roma communities by failing to take account of their excessive poverty and by failing to prioritise them in public health and vaccination strategies.
With 80% living in dense and overcrowded neighborhoods, in families without running water or basic sanitation and with reduced access to fitness services, Roma have paid a disproportionate price during the COVID-19 pandemic, with mortality and hospitalization rates exceeding the general population. Economic measures and distance education in schools, implemented by governments in reaction to the crisis, have left Roma behind, leaving them without a job or source of income and unable to attend school programs. With misinformation and prejudice opposed to Roma, fueled by superior policing of their institutions during closures in some countries, their scapegoat during the pandemic, and increased isolation, the Roma scene has worsened even more. Such a lack of an adequate reaction by governments and the absence of concrete measures in the room will push Roma into even deeper poverty and a circle of disadvantage that can have catastrophic proportions affecting society as a whole, he revealed. the audience. from the EESC “The impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the Roma community: identification of measures to tackle this problem”. The occasion brought together members of the EESC, representatives of the European Commission and EU agencies, as well as civil society organizations that protect the rights of Roma. “The coverage of basic rights will have to be universal and will not have to be differentiated on grounds of ethnic origin or domicile,” said Alfredas Jonuška, president of the EESC’s thematic review organization on Roma inclusion, at the opening of the audience. “The COVID epidemic has greater exclusion, poverty and long-standing discrimination against the most vulnerable organizations, adding Roma who are the largest minority,” said Lavinia Banu from the Commission’s DG JUST European. She presented several monetary tools that the Commission had proposed as a quick reaction to the crisis to help the Roma community. These come with the Coronavirus Response Initiative and Initiative Plus, which allow for rapid deployment of resources or the Fund for European Aid to the Most Disadvantaged (FEAD).
ROMAN SETTLEMENTS DURING COVID: MORE SOLDIERS AND DRONES THAN DOCTORS AND NURSES
Radost Zaharieva, policy coordinator for Roma fitness and fitness inequalities at the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA), said crowded situations and a lack of basic sanitation made things very difficult for them. Roma should adhere to the recommended physical conditioning measures, such as social distancing or self-isolation. Since most Roma settlements are in polluted places, such as near landfills or commercial sites, and do not benefit from public facilities such as garbage collection, the threat of contamination and the spread of the virus is greater. Student. Living in fuel-efficient houses makes Roma more prone to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, which is also a threat to COVID-19. “Despite evidence of greater consistency with exposure to COVID19 and a link between social and fitness inequalities and deaths from COVID, Roma have not been prioritized in vaccination strategies. And the closures have more remote Roma communities when help was most needed, ”Ms. Zaharieva said. EPHA is pushing for fitness equity to be a key factor in promoting equality, inclusion and participation of Roma. In 2020, it reintroduced a revised European Charter for Health Equity to improve the physical condition and well-being of all and unfairly save it and save physical fitness inequalities, Zaharieva said. The Open Society Foundation recently published a report titled “Rome in the Covid-19 Crisis: An Early Warning from Six Countries”, in which it said that the COVID responses of EU countries “are accelerating and bringing the crisis closer. to millions of Roma “. The report concluded that the crisis would have effects not only on the Roma, but also on society and economies in general, “exacerbating inter-ethnic conflicts to a point that has not been noticed in more than three decades. ” Based on its investigation of the scenario in Bulgaria, Slovakia, Italy, Romania, Spain and Hungary, the report concluded that those EU countries had not reacted with the corresponding attention to the great threat. consistent with COVID-19 deaths in Roma communities. “Health measures are insufficient for situations of excessive poverty and are covered by fitness insurance, which many Roma lack. Soldiers, painters’ police forces and drones are more proportionate in Roma communities in some countries than nurses, doctors and medical supplies, ”said Neda Korunovska, from the Initiatives Office of the Open Society for Roma, co-author of the report. 80% of the Roma interviewed live below their country’s threshold in terms of threat of poverty; around 30 per cent live in houses without running water and one in three young Roma lives in a family in which someone has gone to bed hungry at least once in the following month. Although national governments are aware of these situations, they have not given priority to Roma neighborhoods when it comes to distributing disinfectant materials and applying disinfection measures. In some countries, COVID-19 testing has excluded a significant proportion of the Roma population as they were covered by fitness insurance. In Bulgaria and Romania, for example, only a fraction of the Roma have fitness insurance. Policing excess and impunity for police abuses remain a major challenge and have been exacerbated during curfews. In some countries, Roma settlements have been quarantined through the military despite a 1% COVID-19 case rate, or under closures that may not be justified by the number of cases, leaving the population without access to basic needs. These types of interventions through the police and governments have benefited the extreme right, which has introduced disinformation campaigns against Roma, pointing out that they are the main threat to public fitness and the culprits of the spread of the virus. that only reinforced prejudices and anti-Gypsyism. The crisis has also had a devastating effect on Roma painters, as most of them paint in the informal economy, arts and culture, or in low-skilled and low-paid jobs, meaning that they have not been included in the recovery. social and economic. plans, like SURE. Array, putting them out of work and without a source of income during the pandemic. The inability to take online courses has left more than a portion of young Roma out of school, threatening to increase the dropout rate for Roma students, which already stands at 68%.
URGENT ACTION NEEDED ON MANY FRONTS
Participants in the audience under pressure want to put in place concrete, fast and long-term measures in the fields of fitness, economics, schooling and undata, in order to avoid the trend of decline that negatively affects life and rights of people. Rome. They also underlined the importance of working strongly with the Roma in their communities, offering practical help in which civil society organizations have played a very important role. Isvan Kvik, director of Romani network paintings from Lithuania, spoke about setting up business incubators for Roma, which would make it less difficult for them to find employment as they are not hired because of stigma and prejudice and not because of lack of skills. Mr Kvik gives an example: he opened an exclusive restaurant for Roma in Vilnius that he controlled to employ 17 other people, adding young Roma, despite very limited resources. “Promoting business deserves to be one of our priorities, other people can only be satisfied when they make a contribution to the economy,” he said. Zuzana Havirova, from the Slovak Roma Defense and Research Center, under pressure about the importance of education, a doleading in which many young Roma took a step back during the pandemic. In Slovakia alone there are 70,000 young people of this type, and most of them will repeat the school year, which is detrimental to their future. She emphasized the inclusion of young Roma in the school system: “Children deserve to be incorporated into the main teams and not to be raised in network painting centers without the presence of non-Roma youth. Community centers deserve not to update systemic structures, and in no case can we create a global parallel only for Roma. Kumar Vishwanathan from the Czech NGO Life Together highlighted the importance of school and social paintings on the soil of Roma communities. “We want to move into separated and marginalized communities and teach other people about what is going on, vaccines and their benefits,” said Ms Vishwanathan, adding that organizations like him want a lot of help for his valuable cadres. Ahmed Ahkim of the Mediation Center for Travelers and Roma in Belgium called on the public pass government to take into account the wishes of minorities and vulnerable teams because they were the first to be overlooked in times of exceptional crisis. Another very important task would be the fight against anti-Gypsyism, which is one of the main reasons why calls for solidarity have fallen on deaf ears when it comes to solidarity with Roma. Akhim’s organization has been actively concerned with launching COVID data campaigns for travelers and Roma to protect them during the pandemic. Rafael Saavedra from the Fundación Secretariado Gitano in Spain highlighted the importance of methods based on human rights in communities and the important role of civil society organizations in the implementation of enforcement measures. “All measures must be planned and taken in collaboration with NGOs: we know the truth and we can succeed in other people that management cannot. We will have to be identified and assisted, ”he said. Mr Jonuška concluded: “We urge Member States to protect the rights of Roma to physical fitness and to take into account the express cases of Roma communities when enforced emergency measures are applied.
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