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Kao što je već pisano u članku <https://romi.hr/fokus/hrvatska/situacija-s-romima-u-ukrajini>, Romi koji pokušavaju pobjeći od rata u Ukrajini suočavaju se s raznim teškoćama. Iako je Europska komisija izjavila da je svatko iz Ukrajine dobrodošao u zemlje članice Europske unije, u praksi Romi iz Ukrajine nisu dočekani raširenih ruku. Češka gradonačelnica otvoreno je iznijela rasističke izjave vezane za Rome i Rome iz Ukrajine. Gradonačelnica Zuzana Schwarz Bařtipánová, gradonačelnica grada Bílina, pisala je direktoru Uprave za smještaj izbjeglica, Pavelu Bacíku. Gradonačelnica je romske žene i djecu nazvala “neprilagodljivima”, što je termin koji su koristili nacisti tijekom Drugog svjetskog rata.

Gradonačelnica je izjavila da se u potpunosti protivi stambenom zbrinjavanju romskih izbjeglica iz Ukrajine. Napisala je:

„Ne mogu shvatiti da bi itko iz organizacije koju vodi država mogao doći na ideju da te neprilagodljive romske izbjeglice iz Ukrajine preseli u bilo koju od te tri regije, makar i na djelić sekunde, ili ne daj Bože da bi država mogla čak i provesti takav potez, a pogotovo ne u Bílinu!”

U nastavku je govorila o neprofitnim romskim nevladinim udrugama koje ne financira država, a vode ih u potpunosti Romi, a koje su od početka pomagale državi da izbjeglička situacija ne preraste u krizu. Pavel Bacík je u svom zahtjevu gradonačelnici rekao da su "njihove prakse dokazane i imaju za cilj spriječiti društvene i druge napetosti u određenim mjestima, te su ključne za sprječavanje negativnih pojava ili negativnih percepcija u javnosti". Gradonačelnica je na ovaj zahtjev odgovorila sljedeće:

„Neprofitne organizacije koje vode Romi koje Vi spominjete i koji bi prema Vašem dopisu organizirale intenzivan rad na prilagodbi, ne mogu raditi učinkovito uz ove Rome koji su neprilagodljivi, s obzirom na to da ne mogu ostvariti prilagodbu ni ovih romskih čeških sugrađana koji govore češkim jezikom. Nemoguće je vjerovati da bi to uspjeli ostvariti s ovim ukrajinskima.“

Nakon ovog odgovora, gradonačelnica je izrazila podršku stajalištu regionalne uprave Ústecký i da bi "bilo apsolutno neprikladno smjestiti bilo koje izbjeglice romskog podrijetla u 'njihovu' regiju". Regionalni guverner Schiller o ovom pitanju napisao je izjavu koja kaže:

„Regija Ústecký jedan je veliki isključeni lokalitet, i to se ne temelji na nekom mom hiru, već je apsolutno dokazivo podacima. Štoviše, ova specifična zgrada nalazi se na lokalitetu koji je već sada problematičan u smislu suživota različitih društvenih skupina stanovnika. Stoga odlučno ne preporučamo smještaj ranjivih osoba i skupina na tom mjestu."

Nadamo se da nijedna izbjeglica iz bilo koje ratne zone neće biti diskriminirana, vrijeđana ili uskraćena za ljudsko pravo da traži utočište. Prema svim se izbjeglicama treba odnositi jednako, i nijedna vlast ne bi ih smjela diskriminirati, bez obzira na njihovu dob, spol, nacionalnost, religiju, boju kože, etničku pripadnost...

As reported in the article <https://romi.hr/fokus/hrvatska/situacija-s-romima-u-ukrajini>, Roma trying to escape from the war in Ukraine is facing difficulties. Even though European Commission declared that anyone from Ukraine is welcome within European Union member states, in practice Roma from Ukraine was not accepted with open arms. Recently, a Czech mayor openly made racist statements towards Roma and Roma from Ukraine. Mayor Zuzana Schwarz Bařtipánová, Mayor of Bílina, Czech Republic, wrote to the director of the Refugee Facilities Administration, Pavel Bacík. The mayor referred to the Romani women and children as “inadaptables”, which is a term that was used by Nazi during the Second World War.

Mayor stated that she fully disagrees to provide housing to the Romani origin refugees from Ukraine. She wrote,

I am unable to understand that anybody from an organization run by the state could come up with the idea of moving these inadaptable Romani refugees from Ukraine into any of those three regions, even for a fraction of a second, or God forbid that the state could even implement such a move, and especially not into Bílina!”

She continued by talking about the non-profit Roma non-govermental organisations, that are not funded by the state, and run fully by Roma people, which helped the state from the beginning to prevent refugee situation turning into a crisis. Pavel Bacík in his request to the mayor said that, "Their practices have been proven and aim to prevent social and other tensions in specific localities, and are essential to preventing negative phenomena or negative perceptions among the public”, Mayor responded to this request by saying,

“The nonprofit organizations run by Romani people that you mention which, according to your letter, would arrange for intensive social work on their adaptation, are not effectively working to this day with the existing Romani inadaptable citizens here, and given that they are unable to arrange for the adaptation even of these Czech-speaking Romani fellow citizens, it is impossible to believe that they could manage the Ukrainian ones you mention,”

After this response, mayor showed her support for Ústecký Regional Authority’s standpoint and that “it would be absolutely inappropriate to house any refugees of Romani origin in ‘their’ region”. Regional Governor Schiller on this issue wrote a statement that said

“The Ústecký Region is one big excluded locality, and that's not based on any whim of mine, but is absolutely provable with data. Moreover, this specific building is situated in a locality that is already currently problematic in terms of the coexistence of different social groups of residents. We decidedly do not, therefore, recommend housing any particularly vulnerable persons and groups in that locality,”

Mayor concluded her open letter with a civil unrest “threat” to the Interior Ministry, saying,

“The Ústecký Region is one big excluded locality, and that's not based on any whim of mine, but is absolutely provable with data. Moreover, this specific building is situated in a locality that is already currently problematic in terms of the coexistence of different social groups of residents. We decidedly do not, therefore, recommend housing any particularly vulnerable persons and groups in that locality,”

We are hoping that any refugee from any war zone will not be discriminated, insulted or excluded from using their human rights to seek refuge. Refuges should be treated equally, and should not be discilmantied by any authority, regardless of their age, gender, nationality, religion, skin colour, ethnic background…