Note: this 2013 post is being republished from the Runnymede blog

Anti-discrimination and equality legislation has been passed in the UK and across the world to ensure the promise of democracy is a reality for disadvantaged groups. In particular, anti-racist and migrant rights organisations have highlighted and worked to challenge how ethnic minorities have been denied full participation in democratic societies, including in Europe.

Among other institutions, the criminal justice system has often been unable to treat ethnic minorities justly, with cases such as Stephen Lawrence and Trayvon Martin reminding us of the continuing effects of racism, while the practice of Stop and Search disproportionately affects Black and minority ethnic people.

Across Europe, the Roma are particularly vulnerable to such abuse. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this has led to a specific European strategy to improve the lives of Roma across the continent. Romania is only one of the countries that European Roma Rights centre views as failing to treat Roma equally and fairly, highlighting what is calls ‘the Romanian State’s failure to comply with several European Court of Human Rights judgments against Romania in cases of anti-Roma pogroms'.

In the UK, although data are not as extensive as for other ethnic minorities, Roma are more likely to live in poverty, have poor educational outcomes and be excluded from schools, and organisations such as the Roma Support Group are trying to improve the quality of life for Roma people living in the UK.

This is the context in which the UK Home Office announced that ‘Illegal Romanian migrants sleeping rough cleared from London’s Marble Arch’. In the Home Office press release, there is no mention of the fact that the ‘illegal Romanians’ were all Roma, though this is prominently mentioned in the BBC and newspaper coverage. Perhaps more significantly, various UK agencies – including the London Borough of Westminster and the Metropolitan Police – all noted the participation of Romanian police in the eviction, in the same positive terms as Boris Johnson last summer. The BBC reported this as follows: ‘the raid was part of Operation Chefornak which has been targeting rough sleeping, begging and associated criminality within Roma communities in Westminster, the Metropolitan Police said.’

The Home Office is more careful than others in not mentioning the Roma, perhaps hoping that the European Commission won’t notice this targeting of an ethnic minority population whose life chances across Europe are so poor that the Commission has adopted a European-wide Roma strategy. The Home Office is undoubtedly also aware that the Commission has previously upbraided France for its eviction practices, and that the New York Times has implied that UK concerns about access to social and welfare rights may be intentionally targeting the Roma.

Significantly, the various UK authorities all imply that because Romanian police were involved, there are no questions to answer regarding the treatment of the Roma. Even a homelessness charity appears to believe that because some of those evicting the Roma spoke Romanian there is no question of discrimination, while the Met and Westminster council don’t appear to question whether the Romanian police’s known effectiveness on evictions might not be a measure of their fair treatment of Roma.

Unfortunately, evidence suggests that Romanian authorities have been particularly brutal with regard to evictions[1] and even the Daily Mail has expressed shock at the housing conditions of Roma in Romania. It is hard to know if UK agencies believe that asking countries with an extensive history of discriminatory treatment against ethnic minorities for help in dealing with those ethnic minorities is a one-off case for rough sleeping Roma, or whether this is a policy that might be applied to other groups in future.

In the European Roma strategy, housing is identified as a key service that needs urgent attention: ‘Member States should promote non-discriminatory access to housing, including social housing. Action on housing needs to be part of an integrated approach including, in particular, education, health, social affairs, employment and security, and desegregation measures. Member States should also address the particular needs of non-sedentary Roma (e.g. provide access to suitable halting sites for non-sedentary Roma). They should actively intervene with targeted programmes involving regional and local authorities.’

Of course it is highly unlikely that UK authorities will support Roma with Romanian passports in this way. Minimally, however, they should be ensuring that when Roma are evicted, they are treated fairly, and that when they are sent back to Romania, they will not be further discriminated against and denied basic housing.

For the UK authorities, two serious questions then apply:

1. Did they engage any Roma or Roma rights supporters either in the UK when evicting the Roma, or in Romania in terms of preparing for their arrival?

2. Did they get any safeguards from the Romanian police and authorities regarding the conditions under which the Roma are returned to Romania, and consider whether this treatment complies with the Roma integration strategy adopted at a European level?

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to the Home Office, Westminster Council or the Metropolitan Police that the Roma are discriminated against in Romania, and that Romanian authorities have a poor record of treating them well, particularly in the case of housing and evictions. Obviously the eviction in Marble Arch was driven by wider concerns about the effects of European expansion and migration, including UKIP guesstimates about the millions of Romanians likely to come to the UK, as well as the long-standing negative coverage of this issue in papers including theEvening Standard. The Romanian embassy’s statement on this eviction is likely motivated by a concern to disassociate the hard working Romanians living in the UK from the antisocial behaviour of the Roma, further isolating the Roma from any governmental support.

As with ethnic minorities across Europe, including the UK, citizenship or nationality is certainly no guarantee that individuals are treated fairly or protected from discrimination. However, whatever the UK government’s view of membership of the European Union, as a democracy it should not only ensure that it doesn’t discriminate against disadvantaged ethnic minorities such as the Roma, but also should work with other European countries to improve the Roma’s situation. The joint UK - Romanian approach to evicting Roma shows that on one issue at least the UK is willing to show solidarity with a European neighbour regardless of the effects on the most vulnerable citizens on the continent. It appears as if the Home Office and Met are not alone in believing that concerns about immigration can justify the poor treatment of disadvantaged ethnic minorities such as the Roma, a belief that may lead to a wider rejection of the human rights principles that underpin anti-discrimination and equality legislation in the UK and other democracies.

[1] ‘Romanian national law does not regulate how municipalities should conduct forced evictions; there is very little overview or framework as to what should happen in eviction situations. Local authorities carry out the forced eviction of both formal and informal communities that are situated on both private and public land, often in a manner that violates human rights standards’

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