Roma In Bulgaria

ECRI has correctly observed that members of the Roma community encounter “serious difficulties” “in many spheres of life”. The rest of this paragraph, however, regrettably contains sweeping, grossly inaccurate generalizations ... Due to various objective and subjective factors, many (but by no means all!) members of the Roma community found it particularly difficult to adapt to the new realities of the market economy. “…Romani mahala-dwellers are still captives of the past, holding onto and behaving according to preconceptions about the socialist welfare state that clash with the modern realities of a market economy and privatisation.” (Skopje Report, p.6).

More concretely, the allegation that the people living in these districts “have no access to basic public services” is largely inaccurate. Certain difficulties (though not remotely on the scale suggested) do exist in this regard, and the authorities are taking concrete measures to address them (see above). However, as the Advisor on Roma and Sinti issues at the OSCE, N. Gheorghe remarked during the Skopje meeting: “…many of the Roma confuse public services with rights to which they are entitled and which are guaranteed by the welfare state” (Skopje Report, p.16). ...

Concerning the issue of the electricity supply it should be noted that dwellers of such neighbourhoods sometimes refuse to pay their electricity bills. This attitude could at least in part be explained by the fact that “…Romani mahala-dwellers believe they have rights as citizens to electricity and other services, and that the state has an obligation to provide and to a large extent to subsidize them” (Skopje Report, p. 7). In these circumstances electricity suppliers may find themselves with no other option but to “sometimes cut off” the electricity supply in order to incite the consumers to commence honouring their debts. It should be emphasized that such cut-offs are part of standard practice and the ethnic origin of the consumers is completely irrelevant in these cases.

Many Roma children and teenagers attend segregated "Roma schools" in majority-Roma neighbourhoods and villages. These "Roma schools" offer inferior quality education; many are in a bad physical condition and lack necessary facilities like computers. As a result, Roma literacy rates, already below those for ethnic Bulgarians, are much lower still for Roma who have attended segregated schools.Equal access to quality education for Roma, Bulgaria, pp. 18-20.

The official position of the Bulgarian government to those accusations of segregation is:

Roma children are also often sent to special schools for children with intellectual disabilities, or boarding schools for children with "deviant behaviour" (so-called "delinquent schools"). According to reports of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee (BHC), Roma made up half the number of students in schools for children with intellectual disabilities, and about two-thirds of the students of the boarding schools, where the BHC found a variety of human rights abuses, including physical violence. In both sets of special schools, the quality of teaching is very poor, and even essential things like desks, textbooks and teaching materials are inadequate or altogether lacking.Equal access to quality education for Roma, Bulgaria, pp. 20, 47-50.


REFERENCES


General references


Footnotes

EXTERNAL LINKS

• Bulgarian Roma Info Centre


• Tehnitari Association


• Studii Romani Specialized Library with Archive


• The Gypsy Minority in Bulgaria – Policy and Community Development by Elena Marushiakova and Vesselin Popov


• CEGA (СЕГА) Foundation


• START Roma Rights Bulletin , overview of Roma issues in Bulgaria