In Europe, 80% of Roma live below the poverty line. According to a report from the European Agency for Fundamental Rights, 30% of Europe’s Roma families live in homes without drinking water and 46% do not have a home with an indoor bath or shower, only 30% have paid work and only 53% of Roma children attend pre-primary school.
The report shows the results of the second Minorities and Discrimination in the European Union survey for which 25,500 people from various ethnic minorities were interviewed and parameters used including poverty and social exclusion, jobs, education, knowledge of rights and discrimination.
The countries included were Portugal, Spain, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary and Romania, where about 80% of the European Union’s Roma families live.
Overall, 80% of Roma live below the poverty line, compared to a European average of 17%, with one in ten living without electricity.
When questioned about whether household income is sufficient to meet monthly expenses, 92% of respondents said that they do so with "some difficulties," with 45% admitting "many difficulties," a percentage that rises to 74% in Portugal and Greece.
As regards jobs, only one in four Roma aged 16 or over said that they were employed or self-employed, with only 30% of Roma between the ages of 20 and 34 having paid work, compared with a European average of 70%.
A situation that worsens among the youngest, with 64% of Roma aged between 16 and 24 years not working or studying, against a 12% European average.
In Portugal, only 34% of Roma are working, of which 44% are men and 23% are women.
"Gypsies continue to face intolerable levels of discrimination on a daily basis - from looking for work, employment, education, health, when contacting administrative services or entering a store," reads the report which recommends that the European Commission works with the various member states to collect statistical data in a comprehensible way for ethnic issues.
Portuguese gypsies feel the most discrimination
Nearly half of Portuguese Roma questioned have been discriminated against in the last year, especially when seeking work. This means they are the most discriminated against among the Roma communities in the nine European countries surveyed.
The report also noted that, compared with the first survey conducted in 2011, "the prevalence of discrimination when looking for work has increased substantially for Roma in Portugal," pointing out that this type of discrimination has declined only in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania.
With regard to reporting discrimination, the report shows that it is common for Roma people not to complain, only 5% of Portuguese Roma reported discrimination that they had experienced in the last 12 months, against a 12% average in the nine countries.
The report also reveals that in Portugal, Greece and Romania "almost none of the Roma interviewed knew of any support organisation," and only 36% of all respondents said they knew that there was legislation prohibiting discrimination based on skin color, religion, ethnic origin or gender.
It seems therefore that government policy to include Portuguese Roma in social housing schemes, education and the job market, has failed.
