EU Agency for Fundamental Rights finds Czech Republic the place that rejects Romani people the most

The lives of many Romani people in Europe are similar to the lives of people living in the poorer countries of the world, according to a report released earlier this month by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) entitled “A persisting concern: anti-Gypsyism as a barrier to Roma inclusion“. The main problems Romani people face daily in the EU include hunger, poor hygienic conditions, and youth unemployment, according to the report.

The biggest proportion of people who say they do not want Romani colleagues or neighbors is in the Czech Republic, the report finds. According to a survey focused on the attitude of the public in the Czech Republic toward national minorities, 76 % of inhabitants age 15 and older have negative attitudes toward Romani people.

Such intolerance is a frequent phenomenon in other EU Member States as well – according to the report, every third Romani person in the countries surveyed encounters it on average. “Intolerance toward Romani people, ranging from discrimination to hate crimes, is the motivating force behind the vicious circle of Romani exclusion,” said FRA director Michael O’Flaherty.

“Roma then end up on the outskirts of society and face treatment influenced by stereotypes, which is unacceptable,” the director said. Special attention, according to FRA, should be paid to the education, lack of employment and living conditions of Romani youth in particular.

According to the report, these parameters have recently improved in the Czech Republic, which has demonstrated the most dramatic improvement of the EU Member States surveyed. The authors report that the degree of discrimination in seeking employment has fallen for Romani people by 10 % since this survey was last conducted in these countries.

According to the Czech State Labor Inspection Office, however, the situation on the labor market for Romani people is not favorable. Despite low unemployment rates overall, that authority recently recorded the biggest number of discriminatory job ads since 2014, ads in which employers a priori exclude foreign nationals or Romani candidates from applying.