Wednesday, July 4, 2001

The vanishing Roma of Most Ignoring warnings, families leave in search of jobs and equality By Kate Swoger In April, Jan Grunza watched as his older brother Petr packed his bags and moved his family to Manchester, England. There are days when Grunza feels like doing the same. "If I go, my children will be something," he said. "Here they will be nothing because discrimination starts at school." Grunza, 27, is a Romany, or Gypsy. His own young family -- he has two children, with a third on the way -- lives on about 7,000 Kc ($175) in monthly welfare payments. More than half that amount subsidizes the rent in a tiny basement apartment. In recent months, Grunza has seen dozens of Romany families pull up stakes and quit this troubled north Bohemian city -- ignoring sharp warnings from the British government that seeking asylum is ill-advised. Yet Grunza insists he gets cheery postcards from his brother, who reports that he is working on a ship and making good money and that his 11-year-old boy is settling into a new school. Over the past decade, 2,000 of the 12,000-strong Romany community in Most have migrated. The city's major industry, coal, withered years ago; unemployment and job discrimination are widespread. According to Josef Sivak, who is president of the Most Romanies' Association, 40 families sold their belongings in June to raise funds to join relatives in Britain, Ireland, Spain and Australia. "It's very hard to live in this country," Sivak said. In other nations, he said, "there are no racial distinctions. You can go where you want and no one will bother you, no one will say, 'He's a Gypsy.'" Leaving Most 2,000 Roma have left Most since 1990. 10,000 Roma remain in the city of 70,000. In June, 40 families left for Britain, Ireland, Spain and Australia. Unemployment in Most is the highest in the country -- 20.9 percent. Overall unemployment in the country is at 8.1 percent. Estimated unemployment among Roma is between 70 percent and 90 percent. While Romany representatives here list dozens of success stories -- a man teaching boxing in Spain, another playing in a band in Belgium -- the British government is uncompromising on asylum. After Sivak told reporters about the 40 families, the British envoy, David Broucher, wrote to him openly discouraging asylum-seekers. "It's a total waste of their time and money," said embassy spokesman Zbynek Havranek. "The chance they will succeed is zero." Almost all of the 3,170 Czech Romany families that have sought asylum in Britain in the past three years had their applications rejected and were deported. Under current rules, most Czech Roma seeking asylum are kept in a detention center for a week while their applications are processed, then they are sent home. Britain does not grant asylum because it considers the Czech Republic a democratic nation that does not systematically discriminate against its Romany minority, Havranek explained. "There may be, like in most countries, racial problems, but there is no discrimination by the state," he said. He acknowledged that because Czechs are not required to have entry visas, some Roma do arrive as tourists but stay on and work illegally. The British warning has left the Roma of Most undeterred. "This is a free and democratic country and we can't stop people," Sivak said. "I try to stop people, but I can't convince them [there's a future here] anymore." Nationwide, joblessness among Roma is between 70 percent and 90 percent. Children are often placed in special schools for the mentally handicapped. Racially motivated violence is common. Prospects are especially bleak in Most, which has the highest overall unemployment rate in the country -- 20.9 percent. The Romany community arrived in Most in 1946 from Slovakia as part of a massive forced displacement by the state. Many were manual laborers before the fall of communism in 1989. "Roma did the worst jobs then," said the Romanies' Association's cultural programmer, Pavel Gabco, who is unemployed. "Now Czechs do these jobs." Both Gabco and Grunza worked for a year as part of a special Romany security force entrusted with helping police the Romany community. They proudly show off the identity cards they received after completing their training. But funding for the program was cut in May. Now they, too, consider leaving. Thanks to the Romanies' Association, some of those laid off have found security work with private business. The British and Canadian embassies have also provided funding for other training projects. Vladimir Bartl, the mayor of Most, said the Roma who decide to leave are looking for a quick solution to their problems. The city has put efforts into retraining and job placement, but has yet to see strong results. "We are successful in dozens of cases, but not in hundreds," he said. "We need to keep trying, though." -- Yekaterina Zapletnyuka contributed to this report. Kate Swoger's e-mail address is kswoger@praguepost.cz