Inequality, anti-Roma racism, and the coronavirus: EUobserver article uses Roma Civil Monitor research

Research by the Roma Civil Monitor into the impact of national Roma integration strategies in the Member States has revealed the extent of the segregated, socially excluded localities where Roma and Travellers live in appalling conditions throughout the EU. The European Roma Rights Centre’s Bernard Rorke has now written an article for EUobserver about how inequality and racism are exacerbating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in these segregated communities of Roma and Travellers. Activists have long been raising the issue of Irish Travellers living with no access to the clean water that has become a matter of life and death today, and advocates in Romania are demanding authorities take urgent action to protect the health of Roma families living in squalor. Instead of taking action to ameliorate the situation, local politicians in Slovakia are accusing the Roma residents in the segregated settlements of ignoring emergency measures and posing a threat there.  

The full article is available on the EUobserver website here.