Pavee Point Travellers' Centre

Pavee Point Statement

Jan 24 2012

Mari­oara Rostas

Pavee Point would like to express deep­est con­dol­ences to the fam­ily of Mari­oara Ros­tas.  The cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing Marioara’s dis­ap­pear­ance and death are extremely distressing.

This tra­gic situ­ation high­lights con­cerns about risks faced by mem­bers of Roma com­munit­ies and in par­tic­u­lar Roma women, in Ire­land.  Roma women are a risk of exclu­sion and viol­ence as Roma, as migrants and as women.

Many Roma in Ire­land face dis­crim­in­a­tion, and lack of access to employ­ment and ser­vices, which makes them par­tic­u­larly vul­ner­able.  A lack of Eng­lish and lit­er­acy issues can be a major bar­rier to access­ing key ser­vices, includ­ing employ­ment, edu­ca­tion, health, social wel­fare and accom­mod­a­tion. Fur­ther­more, there are laws and policies that have a dis­pro­por­tion­ate impact on Roma and serve to mar­gin­al­ise Roma from the wider community.

The Government’s Joint Com­mit­tee on European Affairs acknow­ledged this in 2009 and recom­men­ded a com­pre­hens­ive review of legis­la­tion and policies in the area of social inclu­sion.[1]

Pavee Point recom­mends that laws and policies that have a dis­pro­por­tion­ate neg­at­ive impact on Roma and other socially vul­ner­able groups should be amended as a mat­ter of urgency.  Fur­ther­more, Pavee Point recom­mends that the Gov­ern­ment devel­ops an inclus­ive, com­pre­hens­ive National Trav­el­ler and Roma Integ­ra­tion Strategy.  All mem­ber states of the EU are required to have developed such integ­ra­tion strategies up to 2020.  Pavee Point strongly recom­mends that Ire­land uses this as an oppor­tun­ity to facil­it­ate Roma inclu­sion in Irish society.

Pavee Point would also like to encour­age mem­bers of Roma com­munit­ies to access ser­vices that are avail­able through the work of some agen­cies and non-government organ­isa­tions.  We would encour­age Roma to link in with Pavee Point, Cross­care and other organ­isa­tions such as migrant organ­isa­tions that can provide inform­a­tion and assist­ance in access­ing sup­ports and services.

–ENDS–

Con­tact for fur­ther comment:

Siob­hán Cur­ran: siobhan.curran@pavee.ie   087 244 1283

[1] Houses of the Oire­achtas Joint Com­mit­tee on European Affairs (2009) Elev­enth Report on The pos­i­tion of Minor­ity Groups in Europe – an exam­in­a­tion of Roma policies in the European Union. Rap­por­teur: Sen­ator Terry Ley­den. Avail­able at: http://euaffairs.ie/Final–Report– Roma-in-EU.doc