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Evictions of Roma Travelers in Brussels

Evictions of Roma Travelers in Brussels: Is Antigypsyism the last accepted form of racism?

On 28 June 2018, evictions of Roma Travelers are to take place in Anderlecht, Brussels. The group of Roma who are going to be evicted are Belgian Roma for centuries. They were born here, as well as their parents and their grandparents. Roma Travelers have always been living on the territory of the Municipality of Anderlecht – part of the European capital Brussels.

Nevertheless, Belgian Roma Travelers remain one of the most neglected communities in Europe. During the Second World War, a big part of the Belgian Roma Community who is traditionally travelling and living in caravans were deported to the Nazi concentration camps. Today, a generation later, Belgian Roma Travelers are being constantly evicted from site to site, unwanted and unwelcomed by the local authorities.

Only two weeks ago, the Anderlecht Municipality announced to the Belgian Roma living on Dante Street that they needed to leave the site. The motive: the land where the camp is located is polluted.

Apparently, this is not the first attempt of the Mayor of Anderlecht Eric Tomas from the Socialist Party to get rid of the Belgian Roma Travelers site. Many times the police have come to the site and ordered them to move without any official order or notice. In April 2018, the local police went to the Belgian Roma Travelers site on Dante Street and ordered them to move, again without any document. However, this time the Roma refused to follow orders without the needed legal attributes.

The owner of the land where the Roma camp is located is not the municipality of Anderlecht. The land of the camp is the private property of the Boghossian Foundation – an Armenian philanthropist family. So far, the Boghossian Foundation refused to cooperate with local authorities and police and to support the eviction of the Roma from their private land. Despite this, the municipality have found an excuse to still conduct the evictions – the pretext is that the land is polluted. This is happening in the context of the coming local elections that will take place in October.

The questions are many. Is Antigypsyism acceptable in the very heart of the European Union and its values? Is the Socialist Party ready to take responsibility for such an act and do they propose any alternative for the Belgian Roma who actually are Belgian citizens? What is the moral right of an Armenian foundation to evict another minority that went through the very same persecution and genocide? Is Antigypsyism the last acceptable form of racism?

There has been the possibility for several years now to create a Travelers site with allocated land and facilities. There is even a special fund from the Brussels Region that can be used for this. However, no municipality so far showed an interest and took advantage of this funding (except Haren).

Three days before the evictions part of the camp was set on fire. Тhe perpetrators remain unknown. The evictions will still take place as planned on 28 June 2018. Where will the Belgian Roma go? Will their children attend school? Will they be provided an alternative? The answer is No. Until the next evictions.

Written by Atanas Stoyanov

How realistic is the new EU programming period when it comes to Roma?

Last month the European Commission has launched their proposals for the next European Union Multi Annual Financial Framework (MFF) 2021-2027 called “A Modern Budget for a Union that Protects, Empowers and Defends”. The MFF is meant to increase solidarity, social cohesion and social protection and will be supported by a series of proposals and financial instruments such as ESF+ ERDF, InvestEU, Eramsus+ etc. These proposals are under discussions and until the final approval in 2019.

ERGO Network fed into the process of the European Commission in drafting and proposing new priorities for its programmes and frameworks targeting Roma through a set of specific recommendations in which we address a number of shortcomings that must be tackled in the next cycle.

The proposed MFF did mentions some general points that are in line with our suggestions, such as the fact that there should be an open and transparent monitoring process, that the EU funds shall not support actions that promote segregation and that there should be more focus on capacity building for civil society organisations.

Roma are mentioned in the proposal of the MFF: “promoting socio-economic integration of third country nationals and of marginalised communities such as the Roma”. However, this narrative implies that they are still not seen as European citizens; furthermore there are no specific indicators that would reflect a stronger focus on Roma inclusion in the current proposal. The annexes of the proposal only briefly mention that there should be “inclusion of the thematic enabling conditions such as National Roma Integration Strategy”.

ERGO Network also calls upon the European Council and the European Parliament to ensure in their negotiations that the EU Framework for Roma Integration will continue. The ERGO secretariat together with the Alliance against Antigypsyism sent recommendations to Members of the European Parliament ahead of the European Parliament plenary debate on 13^th of June on the Implementation of and follow-up to the EU framework for National Roma Integration Strategies. Our position was clearly strengthened by most of the European Parliament Members. They argued in favour of a renewed post-2020 EU Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies, which should address antigypsyism as a central priority.

However, the 25% earmarking for social inclusion under the ESF+ , the main fund supporting Roma inclusion, is still not enough. So far most of the EU member states have easily reached this amount in the current ESF framework and still there has been little or no progress in tackling poverty, discrimination and social exclusion.

Without a clear Framework, thematic objectives and specific budget lines, Roma, as the biggest minority in the EU, will again be lost in the new programming period mixed under the marginalized groups and competing with “third country nationals”

ERGO will continue to monitor the discussions and negotiations in Brussels and ask a strengthened EU Roma Framework with clear objective and indicators and sufficient resources to address inclusion and Antigypsyism.

Nothing about us without us – housing in Usty nad Labem

ERGO Network today wrote a letter to the Social and Health Commission of the Municipality of Usti nad Labem, Czech Republic, concerning the housing situation of more than 200 inhabitants of two residential hotels, among them at least 80 children and most of them of Romani origin.

The news agency Romea writes: “The inhabitants of two residential hotels in the Czech city of Ústí nad Labem that will close at the end of June still do not know where they will be moving. During their housing search they are encountering the need to pay deposits they cannot afford, as well as discrimination from landlords. The Střekov Municipal Department wants to buy out the residential hotel on its territory, according to local mayor Eva Outlá (PRO!Ústí), who informed the Czech News Agency (ČTK) and Czech Radio of her plans. The tenants of both facilities allegedly learned last week from media reports that their current landlord will be closing up shop.”

The local Roma organisation Konexe describes the situation as follows:

“We have been using the community work and empowerment methods in the residential hotels intensively since Friday, 25 May. During that time, several meetings of tenants were held at both residential hotels, during which the people facing eviction have formulated their demands. These families are actually facing the pressure of a horrible situation. On the regular housing market they have almost no chance of finding apartments, there is an atmosphere of depression and hopelessness dominating the facilities. That is being passed on to the children there”.

ERGO Network is asking the municipality that a solution is found in dialogue with the target group. It is very important not to favor solutions that are not designed together with the people whose lives will be influenced by the decisions. Local organizations, naturally, should play an important role in facilitating such contact and organizing a series of meetings. At those meetings solutions could be found that will satisfy all sides.

We are aware of the situation in the Czech Republic. Romani people face antigypsysm daily and their chances at being included in the fair housing market are almost zero. Nevertheless, the fact that Romani people do not have that opportunity and that they pay much higher rents to be accommodated in shocking conditions is something that must be underlined in this case. Who else besides City Hall and nonprofit organizations is able to give a helping hand with aiding the inclusion of these people onto the housing market?

Read the letter here in English or in Czech.

Read the full article of Romea about the situation in Usty nad Labem:

Roma Cafe

Roma Café discussion kicks off on Romani Resistance Day

May 16 is a symbolic date for now in the contemporary Roma movement throughout Europe – a day that intends to shift into a positive narrative by highlighting Roma heroes during the holocaust. ERGO Network together with the Diverse Youth Network organized a renewed concept of Roma Café on May 17 to engage in discussions with Roma and non-Roma on what it means to us to have a Roma Resistance Day.

During the Roma Café guests came together from all over Brussels and Europe. Ms Evelin Verhas joined us from the Budapest based Tom Lantos Institute to present the approach of a human rights organization as well as to provide insights into the Roma Resistance research that has been conducted in 5 European countries. It was important to set the scene with a video interview, where a French Roma World War II survivor, Raymond Gureme explains his every days during the 40s in a very informative testimony. Mr. Atanas Stoyanov kicked off the discussion sharing his own motivation and experience being part of the Dik I Na Bistar movement as a young Roma who has been involved since the very beginning as a participant, later as a trainer and group leader. The DIK I NA BISTAR movement is organized by the Ternype Roma International Youth Network bringing together young people from all over Europe to Krakow and Auschwitz to commemorate the Roma genocide on August 2. Besides the remembrance initiative, a training component is also empowering young Roma and non-Roma.

The research – Joanna Talewicz-Kwiatkowska: `Resistance and Survival of the Roma and Sinti in Auschwitz-Birkenau` – presented by Evelin Verhas pointed out a number of focal points to consider in the current discourse. The minority rights perspective requires the equal recognition of the genocides that have been committed against minorities, and inter and multicultural education must serve as a basis for that. May 16 is researched using the resources that are at disposal such as Roma and Sinti survivor testimonies, memoirs, official records etc., most of them found in the archives of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum. It should be noted that Joachimowski submitted his testimony three times, each time giving a different date for the events at the Zigeunerlager. Whilst recalling a date from the past may be a challenge for a person submitting a testimony, one needs to be cautious assuming that testimonies necessarily describe historical facts. It should be noted that, until now, no existing research could verify or or disprove Joachimowski’s story. Therefore, this research was meant as a first step towards reconstructing events connected to Roma and Sinti resistance in the Zigeunerlager.

The intention was to stimulate new thoughts and to engage in discussions. The meaning of resistance and how it is present in our everyday lives was very important, but the questions of identity also raised a number of valid points.

Roma and the Post–2020 Policy: Challenges and Opportunities

ERGO Network together with its member organizations will be present at a meeting where they will discuss and present the recommendations they and their partners prepared regarding Roma people in the next EU Multiannual Financial Framework’s post-2020. In advance of the meeting, some background information is provided. We will keep you updated on the event tomorrow.

The current Multiannual Financial Framework, the EU’s long-term budget, runs until the end of 2020. This May, the European Commission will put forward a comprehensive proposal detailing the budgetary objectives and regulations governing the post-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework. Currently at the core of these proposed objectives are the protection of EU’s external borders, support for a true European Defense Union, boosting Europe’s digital transformation, and making the EU’s cohesion and agricultural policies more efficient.

Civil society organizations have identified a number of shortcomings concerning the budget, particularly regarding human rights standards, rule of law compliance as a condition to receive EU funds by member states, and effective monitoring mechanisms on the use of EU funds, including funds spent on Roma inclusion. In the current proposal, the Roma people—as well as other minorities—are not direct beneficiaries of cohesion policy funds, a troubling sign regarding future funding.

This conversation about human rights issues in the EU, featuring European civil society organizations in partnership with national Roma and pro-Roma organizations, will focus on the future political and budgetary priorities of the Union concerning Roma populations.

Speakers

Josef Weidenholzer is a member of the European Parliament, Group of Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D).
Soraya Post is a member of the European Parliament, S&D.
Jávor Benedek is a member of the European Parliament, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance.
Claude Cahn is a human rights adviser for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Jamen Gabriela Hrabanova is executive director of the European Roma Grassroots Organisations Network.
Freek Spinnewijn is director of the European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless (FEANTSA).
Nikolay Kirilov works for the Roma Standing Conference.
Zsombor Farkas is assistant professor of the Social Work Department at ELTE University.
Marc Hostert is head of cabinet of Henri Grethen, reporting member responsible for the audit at the European Court of Auditors.
Marie-Anne Paraskevas is senior policy expert at the Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion of the European Commission.
Andor Urmos is policy analyst for the Directorate General for Regional Policy of the European Commission.