In the EU, one in three Roma say they have suffered harassment due to their ethnic origin. In Portugal, for example, repeated harassment is reported by 94% of Roma men. This is one of the alarming facts noted in a report by the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) in a report on anti-traveller prejudice as an obstacle to inclusion of the Roma, published on Friday 6 April.
The sixty-page report reveals that the member states have not yet reached most of their integration objectives and plenty of prejudice still exists in the EU.
According to the last Eurobarometer poll by the European Commission in 2016, 20% of those quizzed in the EU said they would not feel at ease if one of their work colleagues was a Roma. Fewer than half (45%) said they would feel at ease or wouldn’t mind if their child had a Roma girlfriend or boyfriend.
In terms of Roma living conditions, the FRA says there was little improvement from 2011 to 2016: "Many EU Roma face life like people in the world’s poorer countries."
The report says that 80% of Roma are at risk of poverty, compared with an average of 17% across the EU. The report adds that only 30% of Roma live in households with running water, a similar figure, says the FRA, as people living in Ghana or Nepal.
The agency says this is proof that the directive tackling racial equality (2000/43/EU) is not working properly, for the Roma at any rate. The European framework for national Roma integration strategies ends in 2020 and the FRA hopes its report will help fuel the debate about inclusion of the Roma in the future.
It says that comparing the situation in the EU with other countries will help the member states ‘measure their commitment to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.’
Debate will continue on Sunday 8 April on International Roma Day and a raft of events next week organised at the European institutions.
The report can be found at: https://bit.ly/2JpgbD8. (Original version in French Marion Fontana)