Czech COI confirms one case of discrimination against Romany

The Czech Retail Inspection (COI) that investigated five complaints about discrimination against Romany consumers for racial reasons has only confirmed discrimination in one case, COI spokesman Miloslava Fleglova told CTK today.

The number of complaints about suspected discrimination against consumers that the COI receives is counted in dozens, she said. Last year, there were 69 complaints about discrimination against consumers out of the entire 9,248 complaints received by the COI, Fleglova added.

The COI confirmed discrimination in 51 cases that mainly concern the complaints against the providers of goods or services for their giving preference to Czech consumers before foreigners or vice versa.

"Since 2000, the number of complaints received from Romanies has ranged between 3 in 2004 and 16 in 2001, which is not at all a dramatic figure," Fleglova said.

COI inspectors confirmed discrimination in the case of an entrepreneur on which it was alerted by the Krnov, north Moravia, town hall.

The entrepreneur denied Romanies entry to his clubs and the administrative proceedings have been launched against him.

In January, the section of Romany advisers in Brno, south Moravia, handed to the COI the case of a Romany woman who complained about verbal insults by the staff of a bakery when she complained that their rolls were stale. However, she has withdrawn her complaint in the course of the investigation, Flegova said.

COI inspectors mainly analyse the motive of the complaints because many of them are not about discrimination. In many cases it is just settling the accounts between the operators of a restaurant or a pub and the consumers over the consumers’ old debts or their involvement in skirmishes previously, Fleglova said.

"However, these cases cannot be resolved by denying entry to the persons in question," she said.

Most of the remaining complaints concerned dual prices for Czechs and foreigners, Fleglova said.