In 1994, I wrote "Emigration may be the solution for some Romanians in eastern Europe, but for most, the hope must be that social and economic conditions can be improved in the countries where they have lived for many generations. Otherwise, neither visa controls nor frontiers will stop a new migration of the Romanies."
Four years later, nothing has been done to ameliorate their situation and we have seen new waves of emigration. Well over 1,000 gypsies from the Czech and Slovak Republics fled to Canada at the end of 1997 and a similar number tried to claim asylum in the UK. Britain now has gypsies from as far away as Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan seeking to stay as refugees.
Racism against gypsies shows no sign of abating and the majority of the new democratically elected governments in the east have neither the will nor the ability to change popular attitudes. Some are making desperate attempts, as they know that admission to the EU depends partly on improving the living conditions of their Romany minorities. Western European leaders have no wish to see a mass immigration of two to three million gypsies.
This is just a selection of racist attacks in 1998:
In Czech Republic, in January, a Romany home in Krnow was fire-bombed and a woman of 48 was seriously burned. The next day a 26-year-old mother of four was beaten and thrown into the river by skinheads and drowned
In May, a Romany man was beaten up by skinheads in Orlova and left unconscious in the middle of the road where he was run over and killed by a lorry
In Slovakia, on May 16th, a 16-year-old Romany boy was beaten up by an older Slovak man in Lucerne. The police still refuse to take up the case
In many towns in eastern Europe, gypsies are under a virtual curfew, fearing to go out at night in case they meet up with skinheads
Today, in a situation with no work, welfare payments denied, no housing, coupled with hostility leading to pogroms, the solution for the gypsies has been to leave and apply for refugee status in western Europe. The only way to stay in the west is to apply for asylum. As non EU citizens they cannot take paid work, and the only possible alternative to this is to apply to set up a small business under the terms of the various Association Agreements. In practice, however, western consulates are not processing such applications.
The Hungarian gypsies alone have shown no desire to get up and leave the country. Bodies such as the civil liberties Raoul Wallenberg Society and Romany self-help organisations, such as Autonomia Alapitvany, write reports, lobby and investigate racist attacks and often succeed in bringing the perpetrators to book. The government has also set up a structure by which minorities are represented at local level and, as a result, Romanies, although still subject to assaults by skinheads and racist police, have shown no inclination to emigrate.
Nor can we claim that the west is free of racism against gypsies. The rise in unemployment and the growing distance in earnings between rich and poor have led to a rise in the votes gained by fascist parties in many western countries and a rising intolerance towards immigrants and foreigners.
A recent poll in Germany found that, while 22 per cent of those interviewed would not like to live next to a Jew and 39 per cent would dislike having a Turkish neighbour, antagonism towards a gypsy family next door rose to 68 per cent. This is almost as high has the 72 per cent antipathy recorded in Poland in a similar inquiry.
But at least in the west there are laws against discrimination as well as mechanisms for protest and compensation. Gypsies barred from a pub in the UK can ask the Council for Racial Equality to intervene. Gypsies refused entry to a disco in Prague have no such redress.
What we have in eastern Europe now is not so much genocide as ethnic cleansing, an attempt in many countries to persuade the gypsies to emigrate en masse. This is encouraged by the statements of the politicians such as Eugen Barbu and Paul Everac in Romania, while the Polish National Front says clearly in its leaflets that gypsies should be expelled from the country. The organisation Vatra Romanesca includes among its objects "a bloody struggle against gypsies and other minorities". It claims "the holy ground of Romania has been spoiled by the feet of Asiatics, Huns, gypsies and other vagabonds".
But like most Jews in Nazi Germany, the gypsies have nowhere to go. The Czech Republic has denied citizenship to many thousands of gypsies whose parents were born in Slovakia, the Slovak government will not give them citizenship and, at the same time, western Europe has put up the barriers to new immigration. Germany is introducing new regulations similar to those imposed by the Thatcher government in the UK - and retained by New Labour - by which asylum seekers there will be forced to live on charity.
Most of the nations on the waiting list to enter the EU have substantial gypsy populations. Some individuals will certainly want to move west and this should be welcomed, as they will bring new skills and energies to the host countries, just as the first Romanies brought metal-working skills from India to medieval Europe. But most Romanies would prefer to stay in the countries which have been their home for many generations. It is up to the western powers, the EU and the Council of Europe to exert pressure on the aspirants for EU membership to introduce legal and administrative measures that give their large gypsy populations equal rights and opportunities in the new millennium.
This is an edited version of an article which appeared in Index on Censorship magazine. Tel: 0044 171 2782313
Donald Kenrick is former honorary secretary of the British Gypsy Council