Coronavirus: how Slovakia and other countries discriminate against Roma in the crisis

The scenes look like from a disaster movie: Army jeeps with armed soldiers and heavily masked military medics move into the settlements. Attack helicopters circulate over them. People have to compete in the open one at a time, doctors take smears from their throats.

Independent civilian observers are not permitted, and selected journalists who can film and take photographs are under the strict supervision of the army. After the tests, the government announced that the residents had cooperated and behaved calmly.

Scenes from Slovakia these days: The new right-wing national government under Prime Minister Igor Matovic has ordered massive tests for coronaviruses in squalid settlements and ghetto-like residential areas where the Roma live. Because they are currently considered particularly at risk because they often live in confined spaces and sanitary conditions are often poor, and hygiene measures are very important at this time.

Special measures against the Roma

Slovak Prime Minister Matovic says the massive tests are taking place in the form of a large-scale military operation. The use of soldiers only serves for the safety of those affected, combat helicopters in turn are necessary for the rapid transport of infected people and test samples.

Slovak civil rights activists see it differently. They criticize the use of the army as disproportionate and discriminatory, since it only takes place among the Roma. “Sealing the settlements and the presence of the army will continue to stigmatize those whose problems have long been ignored,” says Slovak Ombudsman Mária Patakyová.

Slovakia is not the only country taking special measures against the Roma in the crown crisis, in addition to the restrictions that apply to all citizens, which give the impression that they are a collective source of infection. In Romania and Bulgaria, for example, numerous neighborhoods and settlements where Roma live, were partially blocked or quarantined by the police and the army.

Racism against Roma is on the rise

Many Roma today require other special measures. About half of the roughly 10 to 12 million European Roma are mainly living in great poverty in seven countries in central and south-eastern Europe: the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia and North Macedonia. Families with many relatives of three or four generations often live together in confined spaces in the miserable settlements there. Most of the time there are few public taps – regular toilets, toilets, and sewers as good as nowhere.

Poor Roma are therefore a particular risk group in the crown crisis. But no country in central and south-eastern Europe has consistently avoided the risk of mass infection in Roma settlements, for example, by specifically improving its health infrastructure. Only in individual cases, for example, municipalities in Slovakia established a better water supply for Roma neighborhoods, or mayors such as those in Cluj, Romania, distributed hygiene kits to Roma living next to a municipal landfill.

Instead, the Roma are currently facing additional hatred in addition to the already widespread anti-Gypsyism. Media reports in central and south-eastern Europe often suggest that Roma are particularly ignorant of restrictions such as a curfew or a ban on moving in groups. There are tons of racist comments about the Roma in the crown crisis on social media. “In the new social and political context created by the Crown epidemic, racism against the Roma has increased again as a completely free phenomenon,” writes the Roma Roma activist Ciprian Necula.

No income, no lessons

Major Roma organizations in European countries, such as the German Central Council of Sinti and Rome, also warn of an existential catastrophe looming for the Roma today. Because many are no longer able to carry out their informal activities, such as picking up plastic bottles and junk or exchanging food, household items, or flowers on the street. For their part, children are particularly affected by the closing of schools because, due to the lack of technical equipment, they generally cannot participate in online classes. However, there are no special humanitarian aid programs for Roma in any part of central and south-eastern Europe.