A new support group for Ireland's estimated 1,000 Roma has been set up to challenge discrimination, lobby Government and promote cultural interaction. The Roma Support Group says it also intends to highlight the plight of Romania's three million Roma and encourage the Government to do the same at EU level.
One of the group's founding members, Mr Gheorge Dancea, says Roma have difficulties being included in society both in Romania and in Ireland. The group hopes to promote inclusion and help the Roma to contribute to Irish society.
He says Roma in Romania are marginalised and face widespread discrimination in terms of access to health services, housing, education and jobs. Many Roma living in Cork, Dundalk, Monaghan and Dublin are illiterate, he says.
The group says specific problems faced by the minority in Ireland include translation difficulties at the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform; a reluctance by many landlords to accept them as tenants; lack of resources and acknowledgment of their culture and identity; and lack of protection by the Garda.
Mr Dancea, an asylum-seeker who says he has worked with the Roma political party in Romania, said physical attacks on Roma in Ireland included an attack on a family in their home. The Pavee Point Travellers' Centre in Dublin has supplied offices for the group and works with Roma groups in Ireland and abroad.
The launch of the group coincides with International Roma Day next Sunday.
There are an estimated eight to 10 million Roma, Gypsies and Travellers living in Europe, with substantial populations in Albania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Turkey. The largest concentration of Roma is in Romania.