Roma community in a makeshift camp on the outskirts of Paris, France. PAimages/Jacques Brinon. All rights reserved.
Three months ago, Mitko Yonkov, a 17-year-old Roma from the Bulgarian village of Ovchepoltsi was violently beaten by a 24-year-old non Roma man. The ‘reason’ for the attack? Mitko told his assailant that they were both equal, despite their different ethnicities. The attacker recorded the beating and posted it on social media. It is a distressing example of how deeply rooted and widely tolerated anti-Gypsyism is across Europe.
The European Commission launched the EU Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies (NRIS) in 2011 with the goal to address discrimination and reduce the gap between Roma and non Roma in access to employment, education, housing and healthcare by 2020.
