State's Roma community is marginalised - report

The 2,000-strong Roma community is more marginalised than many other ethnic groups in Ireland, a new report claims. A lack of understanding of the persecution they suffer in their native countries as well as a tendency to keep to th••emselves were found to contribute to this.

The report, Roma In Ireland - an Initial Needs Analysis, was published in Dublin yesterday by Pavee Point and the Roma Support Group.

Though Roma migration to Ireland is not new, the report notes the numbers arriving have increased significantly since the mid-1990s.

The first major arrival was of about 50, in 1998, from Arad in north eastern Romania (Transylvania). Most of this group have been granted refugee status and are settled around Castleblaney, Co Monaghan.

In 2000, Roma were the second largest single group applying for asylum, representing 23.5 per cent of total applications. Nigerians, the largest group, accounted for 30.6 per cent.

Roma now number an estimated 1,700 to 2,000 and, under the State's asylum-seeker dispersal programme are living in Cork, Galway, Athlone, Louth, Sligo and Dublin.

The community has relatively low levels of education, with an estimated 80 per cent having no English. Women are particularly badly affected.

This makes accessing services, integrating and negotiating the asylum system more difficult, notes the report. It also exacerbates the lack of understanding and trust between the Roma and the Irish communities and widespread discrimination is noted.

Difficulties faced by Roma applying for asylum are highlighted, including a lack of trust of Romanian translators, perceived by many Roma to be "on the side of the Romanian state and biased against Roma".

A lack of trust of the legal advice offered by the State was noted, as well as a sense that those taking applications did not appreciate the persecution suffered by Roma in eastern Europe.

The report highlights racism, violence, police harassment and socio-economic exclusion regularly endured by Roma in their native countries. However, in 2000 none of the 1,750 Roma applications for asylum was successful, with just 35 successful on appeal.

It was also noted, however, that many Roma did not appreciate the importance of giving full information in their application, an issue exacerbated by the lack of trust among some of state-sponsored legal advisers and translators.

A key difference between the Roma and other asylum-seeking groups, according to the director of Pavee Point, Ms Ronnie Fay, is that that they tend to arrive in large family groups of up to 20 people.

The dispersal programme breaks families up, she says, which not only erodes the social structure of the community but hinders efforts to form community groups to represents their interests.

The report recommends:

•a Roma community development initiative should be established;

•the need to acknowledge the importance of the extended family, especially regarding education and accommodation;

•the need to target information on asylum process at Roma community, especially about importance of legal advice

•Roma should be included in anti-Racism strategies

•Irish public should be educated about Roma community.