Czech volunteer firefighters tell Romani children club is full - then accept a different applicant

The Plzeňský deník daily reported on 11 September that the Voluntary Firefighter Unit in the Bolevec neighborhood of the Czech town of Plzeň recently refused to accept applications from four Romani children to join their club. Allegedly there was no more room for new members.    

The club then went on to approve a subsequent application. Its leader is rejecting the allegation that the Romani children were not accepted because of their ethnicity.

Samanta Horváthová, who is Romani, encountered a clear refusal when she contacted the club. She wanted to know if her brother’s four children could apply.  

Ondřej Burián, the club leader, answered her e-mail as follows:  "Currently the club is completely full of new children and therefore it is not possible to accept any more. Thank you for your interest."

Ms Horváthová suspected that Burián might have ascertained the children’s Romani origins from her phrasing of the request and from the children’s surnames. She asked a friend to contact the club about new members applying, using the invented name of "JUDr. Kárníčková" and writing the request in very formal language.  

Burián’s response to that request was positive and included an application form and the necessary information. "The reason decidedly was not that one case was that of Roma and the other, not," he told the Plzeňský deník.  

He claims that by mid-April the club was already full and could not accept four more children. There was just one place left, so in the case of "JUDr. Kárníčková", he decided to approve the application.  

"I knew I could fill just one more place," he explained. Jan Benda, the head of the Voluntary Firefighter Unit, also rejects allegations that the children were not accepted because they are Romani, saying:  "Romani people have a different nature, a different temperament, I even grew up with some Roma and they don’t bother me, so I reject the allegation that we wouldn’t take Roma a priori because they bother us somehow. That’s not true, this actually was about the capacity of the club."  

Miroslav Brabec (Czech Social Democratic Party), the Mayor of the Plzeň 1 Municipal Department, said he would never support any discrimination and plans to address the matter with the firefighters. "This is a big mistake. At the same time, I consider it a bad idea to communicate just by e-mail. If the two sides had spoken with one another, the problem might have been solved in a different way," he believes.