Eight out of 10 Roma in Europe live in poverty and without prospects for improvement, neither educational nor employment, concludes an analysis by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), released this Tuesday.
According to the agency, six years after the last survey published by the FRA on this subject, it can be seen that “Roma across Europe continue to suffer from widespread deprivation”.
Although the average of the countries analyzed indicates that 80% of Roma live in poverty, this figure rises to 98% in Spain and Italy, 96% in Portugal and Greece and 93% in Croatia.
“Families continue to live in appalling conditions, with very poor educational and employment prospects,” says the “Gypsies in 10 European Countries” report, which adds that one of the areas where living conditions among Gypsies and the general population is more different is the accommodation.
The document warns that more than one in five Roma (22%) live in spaces without running water and a third do not have an indoor bathroom.
In addition, more than half (52%) live in damp and dark housing and 82% live in overcrowded housing, conditions that continue in 2016.
In the last six years, Roma housing conditions have only slightly improved, with 61% of Roma members living in precarious “houses” in 2016, and now the number has dropped to 52%.
Still, the FRA noted that 29% of Roma children live in households where someone has gone to bed hungry at least once in the month prior to the survey.
It is precisely among children that the observed situation becomes even more worrying, since only less than half (44%) attend kindergarten (nursery and pre-primary) and 71% drop out of school early.
The proportion of Roma without formal education remains very high, warns the FRA, stressing that the situation cuts across all age groups and is particularly serious in Portugal, Spain, Greece and Croatia.
In all countries, Roma children surveyed lag behind their non-Roma peers in all education-related indicators, says the report, noting that the EU has set itself a target of halving the gap between Roma and the population in general with regard to early childhood. education and care.
These differences reported in the child age group are maintained later in life, since, even in adulthood, Roma continue to have much less paid work than the general population.
According to the report, 43% of the Roma surveyed have a paid job, a rate well below the 72% of the average employed population in the European Union, and for Roma women the situation is even worse (28%).
In general, more than half (56%) of Roma between the ages of 16 and 24 simply do not work, study or receive training.
The FRA establishes, in the document presented today, that Member States must reduce the employment gap between Roma and non-Roma by at least half, ensuring that a minimum of 60% of Roma have paid work by 2030.
The only country in Europe that is close to meeting this goal is Hungary.
Discrimination against the lives of two blind people, as proven or fact of one in each four being admitted have been subject to differences in treatment in common situations such as seeking employment, housing, health, education or an attempt to enter in a shop.
In addition, the results also reveal a clear difference in the life expectancy of the Roma with respect to the general population: Roma men and women live nine and 11 years less, respectively, than the rest of the people in the countries analyzed.
Today’s survey indicates that, despite national efforts, many countries still fall short of the targets set out in the EU’s 10-year plan to support Roma – the EU Strategic Framework for Roma Equality, approved in October 2020-, and, starting next year, member states must present, every two years, reports on the implementation of the agreement, in particular on measures to promote equality, inclusion and participation of this ethnic group .
The report published today was based on almost 8,500 face-to-face interviews with Roma over the age of 16 living in Portugal, Spain, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Italy, North Macedonia, Romania and Serbia.
However, it should be noted that knowledge about their rights is not common among Roma, which can be seen, for example, in the fact that only 5% of victims report incidents of discrimination and less than 40% trust police. country and legal system.
Source: TSF
