Roma Children between Integration and Isolation

Berlin – March 5, 2007

"Children from ”gypsy“ families steal and they rather spend their time in the streets than attending school."

Around Europe, Roma, Sinti and Travellers are still confronted with these and a variety of other prejudices. However, the real situation of the children of Europe’s largest minority still remains unknown to most other European citizens. Information is particularly scarce in Germany, where between 100,000 and 200,000 Roma, Sinti and Travellers live, roughly half of them as German citizens, the rest having escaped new persecutions and discrimination in countries of South-Eastern Europe.

A UNICEF Report Card has gone into detail in eight countries/entities in South-East Europe and finds that Roma children are facing serious discrimination, social exclusion and disproportional poverty. A study prepared by the Center of Research on Anti-Semitism in Berlin sheds light on the situation of Roma children in Germany, their living conditions and their education.

For more details and the application form, please go to: http://www.unicef.org/ceecis/

Or directly to the pdf athttp://www.unicef.org/ceecis/Roma_Symposium_ENG_final.