COI deals with four cases of discrimination against Romanies
Prague, 31. 7. 2006, 16:14 (CTK)

The Czech Retail Inspection Office (COI) dealt with four complaints against the alleged discrimination against Romanies in restaurants and shops and one of them has been found justifiable, the COI said on its website today.

Last year, the inspections investigated seven such cases and imposed fines in several cases.

At the beginning of June, the COI received a complaint from local authorities of Krnov, north Moravia, which pointed out that Romanies were denied access to the local restaurants Kalypso, Tornado, Klub 17 and Slezsky dum.

"The inspection carried out on June 30 ascertained that the complaint was founded and administrative proceedings were started," the COI said.

At present, two cases are being investigated. In May, the COI received a complaint against the tourist chateau Trosky and at the end of June it was alerted that the Caribic club near Bruntal, north Moravia, denied access to Romanies. In January, a Romany woman complained against the Brno bakery Balaban. She said that when she pointed out that ready-made dumplings she bought were stale she became the target of insults.

However, she withdrew her complaint later.

"The COI took the complaint as an impulse and is monitoring the situation in the bakery," the COI said in its report.

The COI employs two female Romany inspectors from Usti nad Labem, north Bohemia and Ostrava, north Moravia. They have carried out more than 260 inspections in cooperation with Romany organisations that point to the discrimination against Romanies and help disclose it. A certain Romany family served as a dummy in one of the inspections.

According to the COI, the number of cases in which people pointed to discrimination against consumers regardless of their race or ethnic origin has grown. The consumers, for instance, complained about double prices. Only foreigners had to pay entrance fees in the Aura disco club in Telice, north Bohemia.

Czechs have also become the target of discrimination in many cases. In Klasterec nad Ohri, east Bohemia, a Czech consumer asked for a beer in a restaurant owned by a Russian or Ukrainian but he has not been served. A tourist agency in Karlovy Vary, west Bohemia, refused to attend to a client, pointing out that it only provides services to Russians. "Its owner refuses to speak Czech," the COI said in the report, adding that administrative proceedings had been started against him.

The inspectors also view as discriminations the cases in which a restaurant or a shop refused to accept small change or food tickets.

CTK