Roma suffer housing discrimination in Europe: report
(VIENNA) - Roma suffer discrimination in their access to housing in a number of European countries, a report warned on Tuesday.
The European Union Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) said poor housing was affecting work and schooling prospects for Roma families.
Roma are segregated from other groups in some EU countries, the FRA said, sometimes as a result of political decisions made by local authorities and national governments.
Areas where Roma live often have poor access to public services, workplaces and schools, as well as inadequate supplies of water, electricity and gas, the FRA said.
Launching the report in Vienna, the FRA's director Morten Kjaerum said: "Being forced to live in these places makes it more difficult for Roma children to get to school (and for Roma adults) to find a job and get to work."
The report also said that some Roma were subject to arbitrary eviction despite paying their rent regularly.
Kjaerum said urgent action was needed from governments and local authorities to put an end to segregation, as racial and ethnic discrimination was illegal.
No precise figures exist on the number of Roma in the EU. But the population numbers millions of people and has grown considerably since 2004, when 12 mainly ex-communist states joined the bloc.
Romania has one of the largest Roma communities in Europe: 530,000 according to the 2002 census and some 2.5 million, according to NGOs. Fearing discrimination, many do not declare their ethnic origin.
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