Victória Mohácsi. Foto: Marie Eriksson

”Do you know why we kill Romanies in our country?“

Publicerat 7 Jul, 2006

”There was a real rumpus initially,“ says Victória Mohácsi, the only Romany Member of the European Parliament. ”Other MEPs claimed that ”Romanies are no worse off than other vulnerable groups.“ They didn’t know that Romany children are put into mental institutions solely because of their origin, or that many Romanies have no civil rights at all.“

Has she herself experienced discrimination in the European Parliament due to her Romany background?
"Not until last week, when an angry Rumanian official came up to me and said: "Do you know why we kill Romanies in our country?" He wanted me to listen to his answer but I just walked away."

Victória Mohácsi was previously a journalist and worked, for example, on documentaries on the situation of the Romanies. She then trained as a researcher and worked with education issues for the Hungarian government. She has been an MEP since 2004 and belongs to the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.

Given this record you might think that she has also reached a venerable age, but she was recently...31. She has three children, including a baby who is only six months old. How is this possible? "Support from home and a lot of willpower," she says. We met in her office in the Parliament building in Strasbourg just before a very loud signal split the air - a persistent tone that now and then calls on the MEPs to go and vote on the issues of the day.

In Hungary, approximately 40 per cent of the Romany children have been classified as "mentally handicapped" according to Victória Mohácsi.
"I used to believe that this only happened in post-communist countries, but I have, for example, found a region in Germany where 80 per cent of the children with a Romany background have been diagnosed in the same way. There are also similar areas in Spain, France and so on, this happens in a lot of places. When a Romany child is categorised as "mentally handicapped", the door to education and working life is closed for them."

So why are so many Romany children given this diagnosis? Victória Mohácsi talks about prejudice and ignorance, about a lack of resources, about how Romany children are judged differently, about how children who are given the chance to attend preschool can develop in a different way, and about how doctors "offer" places in mental institutions for children. Once the children are there, they are offered nothing else. As it is claimed that they are "mentally handicapped" they receive no education. This is how things work in several countries, according to Victória Mohácsi.

Surveys indicate that unemployment among Romanies throughout Europe is sky-high, and that persecution, discrimination and exclusion are common. Many Romanies have no civil rights at all, and the more persecuted and stigmatised they are in a country the less willing they are to be registered as Romanies by the national authorities.

Victória Mohácsi is passionate about education and campaigns, for example, against segregated school classes in which Romany children are isolated from others. This is the way it works in Hungary, for example, despite the fact that there are local, so-called governments for Romanies in every town there - in total around one thousand throughout the country.
"This is completely unique, it helps, at least to a certain extent, to safeguard the rights of Romanies and provides a forum where they can say what they think. But these local mini-governments have no decision-making powers."

She has managed to get the other MEPs to understand the situation of the Romanies and that special measures are required to change things. EU ministers and MEPs met recently with various Romany organisations to see what can be done. Several months prior to this meeting, they were asked to investigate factors such as segregation and unemployment among Romanies in their regions, and to look at the resources available for changing the situation

"Everyone was enthusiastic, apart from Rumania. The Rumanian representative left the day-long meeting early. The Rumanians deny, for example, that there are around 2 million Romanies in the country and refer to their official statistics, which say that there are only 400 000. The country wants to join the EU."

Is the EU a good body for influencing the situation of the Romanies?

"Yes, the EU can apply pressure, but the dilemma is that what we do in the European Parliament is present proposals. It takes a long time for such proposals to perhaps become laws that the countries must comply with," says Victória Mohácsi.

 

 

Marie Eriksson marie@stockholmskulturbyra.se

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