Romas under attack in Europe

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Europe’s largest minority group, the Roma, is struggling to cope with a rise in attacks against Romas in several countries. That’s prompted a surge in asylum requests from Romas hoping to leave central Europe for Canada. The World’s Laura Lynch reports from Hungary.

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JEB SHARP: Attacks against Europe’s largest minority, the Roma continue to rise in Hungary.  The violence began in 2008 and it continues to claim lives and fuel fear.  The World’s Laura Lynch sent us this report from the Hungarian village of Tatarszentgyorgy near Budapest.

LAURA LYNCH: This dog is no family pet.  He’s a guard dog brought here in the weeks after people came in the night.  First the attackers set fire to the house.  When the family ran outside they opened fire, killing Robert Csorba and his four-year-old son.  Csorba’s mother Erzebet came out of her house when she heard the gunshots.  She immediately called the police.

ERZEBET: [HUNGARIAN]

TRANSLATOR: My son was alive when they arrived because I was holding him in my lap.  Then the ambulance attendants took him away from me and told me they could save him.

LAURA: But he died before the ambulance even left the scene.  It was one of several deadly attacks against Roma or Gypsies, as they’re sometimes known, over the past year.  The escalating violence seems to have coincided with the economic slide in Hungary and other central and east European countries.  Viktoria Mohasci has been trying to keep track of all of the incidents.  They include fire bombings, beatings, and the burning of swastikas in some Roma communities.

VIKTORIA MOHASCI: Only those people who thinks that we as a Romany people not so welcomed in this country.  Those kind of attacks as a message like we should leave the country.

LAURA: Mohasci used to be a member of the European Parliament.  But she lost her seat a few months ago in the same election that saw a surge and support for a far right party, though it still only one 15 percent.  The party, called Jobbik spent much of the campaign blaming the Roma for Hungary’s severe economic problems.  It has it’s own uniformed street militia that’s marched through Roma neighborhoods.  Just days ago Hungary’s top court upheld a ruling outlawing the militia.  But history professor Istvan Rev says that doesn’t mean they’re going away.  Especially since Hungarians are living through a crime wave that many blame on the Roma.

ISTVAN REV: These are groups with paramilitary or military units with weapons.  They are arming themselves.  In a country where the majority of the people fear that the state is not able to guarantee personal security, in such a situation people turn to private organizations that promise security.

LAURA: Amidst the alarm other politicians are calling for calm.  The main opposition party in Hungary, Fidesz, seems all but assured of winning elections scheduled for later this year with its conservative agenda.  Fidesz spokesman Tamas Deutsch doesn’t see the far right as much of a threat to anyone here.

TAMAS DEUTSCH: [HUNGARIAN]

LAURA: These extreme right political movements and parties have much less support in Hungary than they do in much of Western Europe Deutsch says meaning Britain, France, The Netherlands and Norway.  He says in that sense Hungarians are safer and secure against extreme right wing views.  What Deutsch doesn’t mention is that a lawmaker from his own party has launched verbal attacks on the Roma himself and the physical attacks and threats haven’t abated.  Viktoria Mohasci, the high profile face of Roma activism in Hungary says she’s asked police to investigate a series of death threats against her.  The only real protection for Roma she says is to help them by educating them, integrating their children, and finding them jobs.

VIKTORIA: I mean the whole society should be one society.  We are also Hungarian, most of our people speaks Hungarian language as a native speaker people.  We are all Hungarian citizen, we have all the Hungarian rights.

LAURA: Meanwhile some Roma aren’t willing to wait.  This past fall a sudden wave of refugee claimants made Hungary the number one source of people seeking asylum under Canada’s relatively generous refugee system.  That prompted Canadian officials to consider imposing visa restrictions on the country as it did when there was a similar flood of claimants from the Czech Republic in the summer.  The vast majority in both cases were from the Roma minority.  Standing near the burnt-out shell of the house where her son and grandson died Erszebet Csorbet holds the hand of her remaining grandson.  Csorbet says there haven’t been any more attacks, but that doesn’t mean she feels safe.

ERSZEBET: [HUNGARIAN]

TRANSLATOR: There are things that happen, like a car coming during the night.  The headlights are off.  They stop here with the engine running and we hear gunfire.

LAURA: I ask her the last time that happened.  Just last night she says.  For The World I’m Laura Lynch in the village of Tatarszentgyorgy, Hungary.

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