In Germany there were 621 anti-Romani incidents last year, including a drive-by shooting
The newly-established Center for Tracking Racist and Discriminatory Treatment of Roma in Germany (the MIA) recorded 621 cases last year. Romani Rose, head of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, announced the findings at a press conference in Berlin together with MIA head Guillermo Ruiz Torres as he presented the first annual report of the new institution.
Torres said the examples show that Roma and Sinti face discrimination on a daily basis in Germany. The exact number of Romani inhabitants of Germany, which has a population of 83 million, is not known; estimates of between 70,000 to 150,000 people are spoken of most often.
The German state officially uses the term “Sinti and Roma” to refer to the Romani minority; the Sinti have their roots in Central and Western Europe, while the Roma have their roots in Eastern and Southeastern Europe. “In 2022, the center recorded 621 anti-Romani cases, including one incident of extreme violence, 17 cases of physical assault, 11 cases of threats and four cases of property damage. That is just a brief enumeration,” Rose told journalists.
The head of the Central Council noted that last year’s incidents show the growing danger of right-wing extremism as well as increasing aggression against Roma, Sinti and other minorities in Germany. The case of extreme violence concerned an incident in Saarland last September.
“Members of our minority were first insulted by the passengers in two cars driving past them and subsequently shot at with a gas pistol. Several people suffered injuries,” Rose said.
Torres said more than half of the cases recorded by his office were about discrimination. “Half of those cases of discrimination happened at an institutional level, for example, at police stations, in centers for jobs, at local authorities and at child and youth welfare authorities,” he said.
“Discrimination is also something Romani refugees from Ukraine are grappling with, from their reception to their accommodation to their education. One-seventh of the 621 cases last year concern Romani refugees from Ukraine,” Torres said, adding that Romani Ukrainians seeking temporary protection from the war have to be treated the same in Germany as majority-society Ukrainians.
“Those are the two things that most stand out,” Torres said of the discrimination being experienced by Romani people from officialdom and the constraints faced by Romani Ukrainians seeking temporary protection in Germany. The press conference was also attended by Mehmet Daimagüler, the German Government’s Commissioner on Antigypsyism.
“The approach being taken toward marginalized minorities shows the state of our democracy and the state of civil rights in this country,” Daimagüler said. Torres said he anticipates that the annual report for 2023 will contain more cases than the report for 2022.
Torres said he believes the increase will be related to the fact that the center started working just recently and not everybody who has experienced discrimination has decided to report it yet. Rose said it is crucial to concentrate on the history of the Sinti and Roma minority in instruction and that it is also necessary to focus on the authorities becoming better informed about this history as well.
