GREEK HELSINKI MONITOR

1. Doctors of the World/ Roma camps in Greece, comparative statistics

The international non-governmental organization Doctors of the World published the results from their scientific research in Europe under the title “ROMEUROPE, June 1999” (the report is in French). Greece was also included in the work with findings from two camps in Athens - Nea Liosia and Aspropyrgos-Nea Zoi. According to these findings, Greek Roma have no access to emergency medical aid, to information on preventive medicine and are inadequately vaccinated. The report relates the poor living conditions in the camps -in their majority established near scrap heaps, without any infrastructure and transportation- to the health problems of the majority of the nomadic Roma population in Greece. Only 2% of the Roma are said to have decent accommodation and living conditions. The organization estimates that as many as 99% of the Roma have the Hepatitis A virus. The percentage for Hepatitis B virus carriers is 50%, while 18% of the Roma are carriers of the disease. These statistics, compared to those of the rest of the Greek population, are much higher. Similar are the conclusions drawn from comparisons with other European countries.

In particular:

58% of the Roma women in Greece stated that they are healthy (the same percentage for the rest of the European countries covered in the report is 67%), while 42% claimed the opposite (as opposed to 33% for the rest of Europe).

93% of the Roma women have never taken any contraceptive pills.

15% receive social aid.

40% have insurance; 30% of these are fully covered.

All these statistics for Greece are much lower than the average for Europe.

From a medical point of view, what makes the situation even more perplexing is that Roma seem to fully distrust the overall medical system (e.g. hospitals and emergency aid services). Only where there is an established long-term relationship with a doctor, they manage to overcome their fears.

66% of those who have consulted a doctor even once in their lives have done so in the public hospitals, while only 14% have gone to private doctors.

In respect to education, 13% of the Greek Roma have gone to school (the same percentage for other European states is 55%). 6% of them can read and write (around 30% is the average in Europe).

Ms. Alfieri, a deputy of the Progressive Left Coalition party, tabled a parliamentary question on 30/6/1999 addressed to the Minster of the Interior, V. Papandreou, on Roma issues. She first referred to the statements made by the government and the Ministry of the Interior, committing themselves to help in the resolving of the pending Roma matters in Greece. Ms. Alfieri also referred to the June 17, 1999 meeting of the Minister with participants from the GHM, the DROM Network, Doctors of the World, the Coalition party and the Panhellenic Federation of Roma Associations. During that meeting the establishment of a committee of the representatives of the aforementioned organizations, as well as of the government and the local authorities, was decided. The committee’s job was to study the proposal on the self-administered camps and any other relevant topics. The first meeting of the committee was set for July 1, 1999. However, the Minister decided to stop the procedure arguing that a National Roma Policy Council had to be established before anything else.

One has to take into account the following facts:

the Office of Quality of Life (Office of the Prime Minister) has been informed about the draft law and started studying it

none of the competent authorities has so far expressed any substantial disagreement with the proposal

the Roma themselves have endorsed the proposal

Ms. Alfieri addressed Ms. Papandreou with the following questions:

Why the establishment of a National Policy Roma Council has taken so long?

Why the studying of the proposal on the self-administered camps has not progressed at all?

 

3. A TV program on the Roma/ July 17, 1999

Talking about the Roma with the Roma, representatives of some NGOs and of the government

The Roma of Greece – this was the subject of the TV talk show entitled “Waiting for the Barbarians,” hosted by Mr. Gregory Vallianatos (also member of the GHM board) on the private channel “Alter-5.” The panel consisted of two Roma (Mr. Heraklis Kalamiotis, President of the Elpida Roma Association of Nea Alikarnassos, Mr. Stelios Kalamiotis, President of the Elpida Roma Association of Halandri), representatives of three NGOs (Mr. Panayote Dimitras, Spokesperson of the GHM, Mr. Dimitris Giamloglou, Spokesperson of the Drom Network for Roma Social Rights, and Ms. Elpida Efthimiatou, representative of Doctors of the World) and finally, Mr. Fredy Stamos, Associate at the Prime-Minister’s Office for Quality of Life. The participants each gave a brief profile of their organizations and referred to the situation of the Roma population in Greece, based on their respective experience.

Mr. Heraklis Kalamiotis described the Elpida Association of Nea Alikarnassos as a cultural association aiming at the preservation of the Roma way of life and the overall improvement of their living conditions. Mr. Kalamiotis attributed the current poor quality of life to the discrimination against the Roma, which is present in very many ways in the Greek society. Mr. Stelios Kalamiotis of the Elpida Association of Halandri made similar comments.

Mr. Giamloglou referred to the Roma of Evosmos, who were evicted in 1998 from the place where they had been living for more than 30 years and consequently spent the winter in the drained bed of the Gallikos River. The Drom Network has been providing education, participating in programs for medical treatment and offering human rights advocacy to the Roma. The organization has been actively lobbying for the construction of a model camp in the former military barracks of Gonos, where the Roma will hopefully be resettled by the end of 1999. He added that the Gonos case can be used as an example for the creation of self-managed settlements with certain preconditions, which will reassure not only the improvement of the quality of life of the Roma but also their inclusion in the wider society. He added that a number of NGOs and the Progressive Left Coalition party have already proposed a relevant draft law to the government.

Mr. Dimitras referred to the two fact-finding missions realized by the Greek Helsinki Monitor in cooperation with the ERRC (1998) or the International Romani Union’s cadre and Roma linguist, Mr. Marcel Kortiade (1996), throughout Greece. These missions have indeed revealed the unacceptable living conditions of the nomadic population and the great inequalities among the Roma themselves. He stressed the paradox that the Roma refugees from Asia Minor in the 1920s were given support in order to be incorporated into the Greek society, while those who have been living in Greece for more than two or three centuries remain at a very low level as regards their living conditions.

Ms. Efthimiatou spoke of the vaccinations and medical exams given regularly by Doctors of the World in settlements in Athens and Thessaloniki and correlated the poor health condition of the Roma with the lack of sanitation and the unacceptable living conditions in the settlements. She added that the existence of Roma in a particular area should be seen as an advantage and a challenge, instead of as a serious drawback and a problem, which is actually the case in most municipalities. “Wouldn’t it have be better for all if the Municipality of Aspropyrgos had helped the Roma to improve their living conditions, instead of burning their shacks, as it did last February?” she said.

Mr. Stamos expressed his disappointment with the current situation of the Roma population, although he recognized that some positive steps had been made for the first time in Greece. He said that he is eager to discuss the draft law of the NGOs, which he characterized as generally positive and added that the government tries to cooperate with the local governments in order to solve the various problems of the Roma. He said that in some cases the local governments are unwilling to cooperate. When asked about the number of the nomadic Roma population, he replied that according to official estimates they are about 60,000 to 70,000. The Roma and the NGOs said that this is a very low figure, attributed to the difficulty in registering nomads. According to them the actual number is more than 120,000.

When the journalist asked the Roma to describe the positive characteristics of their way of life, Mr. Heraklis Kalamiotis replied that the image of the merry and joyful Roma person is a stereotype and that the actual image is of a very unhappy person, who is discriminated against and who is forced to live poorly. Mr. Giamloglou added that according to his experience, the Roma are not at all “proud” of their situation and feel downgraded by the non-Roma. Mr. Heraklis Kalamiotis said that the Roma are victims of racist discrimination and gave an example of a school director who refused to accept Roma pupils in his school. Mr. Dimitras remarked that Roma themselves have a negative attitude towards school, which they should change to their own benefit; and that Roma women are twice discriminated against, as Roma and, within the Romani community, as women.