The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) based in Brussels published a report on Tuesday on the situation concerning Roma children in state care in five European countries, including Slovakia. The report - which also covers Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Moldova and Romania - points out, among other things, the failure to address the overrepresentation of Roma children in state care.
The research behind the report demonstrates the need for immediate action by Governments and the European Commission, in the context of the new EU Roma Framework 2020-2030, to ensure progress on deinstitutionalisation.
According to the ERRC, the publication - called "Blighted Lives: Romani Children in State Care" - confirms that large-scale and discriminatory institutionalization of Roma children persists; that very many at-risk Roma families cannot access social supports; and preventative measures are scarce or non-existent.
In connection to the report, ERRC Advocacy & Policy Manager and lead researcher Bernard Rorke stated: "Romani children are overrepresented in institutional care in all the countries looked at in the research. Institutionalisation has devastating emotional and developmental effects on youngsters, and I find it frankly appalling that Roma inclusion frameworks and strategies have completely neglected this issue. The European Commission would do well to remedy this glaring deficit."
The ERRC maintains that the institutionalization of young children is a form of violence, and the disproportionate overrepresentation of Roma children in state care amounts to a form of racist violence. A human rights-compliant response to the existing situation of Roma children and children with disabilities in state care, it claims, calls for the immediate and total elimination of institutional care and the development of appropriate child support services across Europe.
