Slovakia plans to remove Romani children from their families

[ensho]

http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?id=ENGPRE010772010&lang=e&rss=recentnews


Amnesty International has warned that establishing boarding schools for Romani children "and gradually detach them from the way of living they currently experience in the settlements" is discriminatory and a blatant attack on the Roma way of living.

The Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said today that the government proposes a system, in which Romani children will be taken from settlements and be placed in boarding schools.

"The idea that Romani children have to be removed from their families and put into boarding schools, when they could be educated in normal schools near their homes, is clearly against the best interests of the child. Uprooting from their surroundings and removing them from their families, is an attack on their identity," said Halya Gowan, Europe and Central Asia Programme Director.

The fact that some Romani families living in settlements -- as other families in Slovakia -- experience challenges to supporting the education of children because of poverty, language barriers and other factors, highlights the need for government to provide support and assistance to all to overcome such barriers.

"Isolated from the outside world, Romani children will find it more difficult to fully participate in Slovak society. The government's proposal will perpetuate the segregation they experience now. In fact it will make it official," Halya Gowan said.

"The government's proposal is completely out of tune with developments in the European Union. If adopted, it will be in absolute contravention of both Slovak law and international human rights standards on non-discrimination by which Slovakia is bound."
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they must have been reading american history. like when we took american indian children and put them into boarding schools and also tried to make them christians.

sigh

[no_hypocrisy]

1. "normal schools"

That term makes my skin crawl.

[Cleita]

2. And the Indian schools worked so well that they need to repeat the mistake?

Maybe the Slovakians needs some versing in Native American history under the European colonists so that they aren't doomed to repeat it..

[Solly Mack]

3. k/r

[izquierdista]

4. Upon closer examination...

The "Roma way of living" qualifies as child abuse according to the standards of many countries, including the US. They are an interesting tribe of people -- a lightning rod for their differences, with customs that that qualify as crimes in many places.

[MineralMan]

5. Eliminating the Romani has been a goal in eastern Europe

for a long, long time. They're "different," you see. Different is always bad. They speak a strange language, live differently, and must be eliminated, according to many in those regions. Even Hitler was on a campaign to get rid of them.

Not an easy world for the Romani.