Widespread deprivation is destroying Roma lives – families are living excluded from society in shocking conditions, while children with little education face bleak prospects for the future, a new report from the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) shows. The report, published on 29 November 2016, analyses the gaps in Roma inclusion around the EU to guide Member States seeking to improve their integration policies.

The survey shows data for 8 countries, with those for Croatia being in accordance with the state of human rights and discrimination of Roma minority described in the Annual report of the Ombudswoman of Croatia. 

“Our manifest inability in Europe to honour the human rights of our Roma communities is unacceptable. The levels of deprivation, marginalisation, and discrimination of Europe’s largest minority is a grave failure of law and policy in the EU and its Member States,” says FRA Director Michael O’Flaherty. “The publication of these findings provides an opportunity to galvanise policy makers into action and focus resources on redressing this intolerable situation.”

The survey shows that 80 percent of Roma interviewed are at risk of poverty, compared with an EU average of 17 percent. Almost one third of them live in households with no tap water and almost half have no indoor toilet, shower or bathroom. 30 percent of Roma children live in households where someone went to bed hungry at least once in the previous month. 53 percent of young Roma children attend early childhood education, often less than half the proportion of children their age from the general population in the same country. Only 30 percent of the Roma surveyed are in paid work, compared with the average EU employment rate for 2015 of 70 percent.

41 percent of Roma feel they have been discriminated against over the past 5 years in everyday situations such as looking for work, at work, housing, health and education. 82 percent of Roma are unaware of organisations offering support to victims of discrimination.

The selected foundings on Roma, as part of FRA’s Second European Union Minorities and Discrimination Survey (EU-MIDIS II), can be found here.