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Telegraph
a day ago
- Telegraph
I've lost everything, says Romanian wrongly arrested for Ballymena attempted rape
A Romanian in Ballymena has claimed he has 'lost everything' after he was wrongly arrested for the attempted rape of a schoolgirl. He spoke after riots broke out in the Northern Ireland town following the appearance in court of two 14-year-old boys charged with attempted rape and who required a Romanian interpreter. The father-of-two, named Alex, wrote on social media how his home and car were attacked by anti-immigrant rioters while he was in custody, according to the MailOnline. The 28-year-old also said rioters returned to the property even after he was freed from custody without charge. Alex said he and his wife had been forced into hiding, while his mother had taken his two daughters to Romania out of fear for their safety in Ballymena. In a Facebook post translated from Romanian, the father wrote: 'I have lost everything because of false accusations. 'I lost my house where I lived, my car, all my belongings. 'But the biggest regret is that I lost the chance to offer my children a better future. And all this without having done anything wrong.' The Romanian national went on to say: 'My family and I are not guilty, we all came for a better life, no one wants problems, we are modest people, people who fear God.' Houses have been set alight and bricks, fireworks and petrol bombs have been thrown during scenes of disorder in Ballymena over recent days. Residents previously told The Telegraph of long-running tensions with the Roma community – which came to a head following the boys' court appearance. The scenes have been so frightening to some residents, non-Roma immigrants have resorted to putting up signs confirming their nationality, such as 'Filipino lives here'. Meanwhile, others even displayed the King's Coronation memorabilia and crockery featuring Queen Elizabeth II, in a bid to deter thugs hunting for migrants. On Thursday, three teenagers were charged with riot in relation to the disorder, with the youngest, 15, also charged with criminal damage. In total, 15 people have been arrested and 41 police officers injured during the unrest, which was sparked by the alleged sexual assault of the girl. In his Facebook post, Alex, who is also active on TikTok, also apologised if he had offended anyone in Northern Ireland with 'boastful' posts he had published on the social media platform. In one TikTok reel that emerged after riots began in Ballymena he was shown blowing kisses to the camera before waving a giant wodge of cash outside the town's courthouse following an unrelated matter involving a family member. Critics claimed it was then shared by one of his relatives who made provocative comments. In another social media message, after his Audi was attacked, Alex wrote in Romanian: 'Plenty more fish [in the sea]' over a picture of the smashed-up luxury vehicle on his drive. He wrote: 'I admit I am 'boastful'. That is my character and I apologise if I upset anyone. It was not my intention.' In a statement that did not name the man, the Police Service of Northern Ireland said: 'A 28-year-old man was arrested on Monday June 9. 'He has been unconditionally released from police custody following questioning.'
The Guardian
29-05-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Segregated classrooms are not a thing of the past – look at what is happening in Slovakia
It may come as a surprise to many, but racial segregation in schools exists today in several countries in the EU. In Slovakia, more than 60% of Roma children attend schools where they are in the majority. Worse still: segregation is being rebranded, not removed. In nearly a quarter of all primary schools, Roma children are separated into 'Roma schools' or 'Roma classes' – often in overcrowded buildings, with lower academic expectations, higher drop-out and grade repetition rates, and with little or no clear path to equal participation in life. Furthermore, Roma pupils are often placed in schools and classes for children with mental disabilities. As activists, we are told it's about language. Or behaviour. Or parental choice. Or mental disability. Or because Roma often live in spatially segregated neighbourhoods. We are told it's temporary. However, as the years (and decades) go by, the situation remains the same. Roma in Slovakia, like elsewhere in Europe, have been pushed to the margins of society. As a result of centuries of antigypsyism (the specific form of racism towards Romany people), Roma have long been treated with suspicion and hatred. This has resulted in Europe's largest ethnic minority group also arguably being the most discriminated against. In Slovakia, there are many Romany communities living in such poor conditions (often without access to even running water or electricity) as to be unrecognisable to most Europeans as places to live. The level of discrimination at every level of society is sometimes overwhelming. But among the many barriers to Roma in this informal apartheid, education can offer a small chance for new generations to escape. It is a cornerstone of equality – the place where inclusion begins. Yet in Slovakia, school remains one of the many institutions where they are systematically separated from the rest of society. As the US supreme court ruled in 1954 in the Brown v Board of Education case: 'Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.' Despite legal guarantees at national and EU level, decades of pressure from civil society and international human rights bodies, judgments issued by courts and even proceedings initiated against Slovakia by the European Commission, segregation continues to define the educational experience of tens of thousands. For several years, the Slovak government denied discriminatory treatment of Roma pupils. They justified the overrepresentation of Roma children in the special education system by stating that Roma in Slovakia have a higher occurrence of genetically determined disorders because of 'the highest coefficient of interbreeding' in Europe. It was only in 2020 that the Slovakian government finally openly acknowledged the existence of the segregation and undertook steps to eradicate it. Several reforms have been introduced. A legal definition of segregation has been added to the School Act. Legally binding standards on desegregation have been published. Legal entitlement to kindergarten has been expanded. Introductory grades were introduced in place of the previously criticised 'zero grade classes' (catchup school years to allegedly bring students to the mainstream level), which were attended largely by Roma pupils. A pilot project branded as a 'Roma national school' was announced that would rebrand segregated schooling under the guise of minority rights to learn in your own language and cultural environment, while in effect changing nothing about the segregated schools. Taken in isolation, and without context, some of these measures may appear constructive. But implemented without clear safeguards, oversight and coordination, they often reinforce the very segregation they claim to address. The new desegregation standards focus primarily on classroom-level inclusion within segregated schools, rather than addressing school-level segregation. Similarly, the creation of Roma national schools could lead to institutionalised segregation at the school-level under the pretext of minority rights. The shift in name from 'zero grade classes' to 'introductory grades' is another example. Though meant to improve school readiness, these classes often replicate the same segregated logic – delaying Roma children's access to mainstream education and streaming them into separate pathways. Slovakia must stop managing segregation and start ending it. We already know what works: diverse classrooms, mixed environments, early and emphatic support. These are not radical ideas. Responsibility lies not only with Slovakia. The persistent segregation of Roma children constitutes a longstanding violation of the race equality directive and the EU charter of fundamental rights. Meanwhile, European Commission targets of reducing segregation of Roma in primary schools by only 50% by 2030 not only give a free pass to segregationists across the bloc, but undermine the illegality of segregation in the first place. The EU cannot afford to look away. Allowing segregation by repacking it undermines the credibility of its commitment to equality and human rights. Segregation, by any other name, remains segregation. The EU must respond to this systemic failure now, before yet further generations of Romany children are denied a future. Kamila Gunišová is a researcher at Amnesty International Slovakia and Michal Zálešák is a legal consultant for the European Roma Rights Centre and attorney-in-law working in Slovakia
Irish Times
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
Far right ‘breaks political culture' of tolerance in Portugal
As the Portuguese election campaign got under way earlier this month there were acrimonious scenes in the picturesque northern city of Aveiro, where André Ventura, the candidate for the far-right Chega party, was seeking to win support. Members of the Roma community had gathered to protest against the politician, chanting 'fascist' and 'racist' at him as he strolled the streets and stopped to speak to the media. 'Chega must not take control of our country, that would be a disgrace,' Belarmina Fernandes, one of the protesters, told journalists, as she called for 'hate to stop being fuelled by André Ventura.' 'We encourage our children to study, to work,' she continued. 'I work, every one of us who is here is trained, has studied, to make something of themselves.' READ MORE Ventura, a 42-year-old former lawyer and football commentator, responded by saying: 'There are some who work, there is a big majority who do not – they make women get married at 13, live separately from the rest of the community.' He added: 'I'm not the fascist, they are the ones who want separate rules for themselves in Portugal, and I cannot accept that.' The protest was small, but similar scenes were repeated over the following days in the towns of Braga and Viana do Castelo. They have drawn attention to Chega's attempts to cast the Portuguese Roma community, believed to be around 50,000-strong, as work-shy and lawless. As Sunday's election looms the accusations of racism against Ventura and his party's polling success have also placed the spotlight on his attitude to immigrants. In 2017 the former Portuguese prime minister António Guterres said: 'Portugal is a country where populism isn't a vote-winner.' Chega only won one seat in the general election two years after the UN secretary general's sweeping statement, suggesting that Portugal was indeed an outlier, immune to the right-wing populism and anti-immigrant feeling that was spreading across much of Europe. But since then the far right's fortunes have improved dramatically just as Portugal's reputation for political stability has taken a nose-dive. In the 2022 election Chega secured 12 seats, before its major breakthrough in 2024, becoming the third parliamentary force with 50 seats. Chega's rise has been driven by its calls for a clampdown on immigration, which has increased substantially in recent years. The migrant population has nearly quadrupled since 2017 and is now about 1.6 million, according to the Integration, Migration and Asylum Agency (AIMA), making up about 15 per cent of the population. In the wake of the country's 1974 transition from dictatorship to democracy, Portugal's immigrants came mainly from former colonies such as Angola, Cape Verde and Brazil. Now many migrants come from the Indian subcontinent and eastern Europe. António Costa Pinto, of the University of Lisbon's Institute of Social Sciences, says that until recently values of inclusion and tolerance were embraced across the political spectrum. 'There was the idea, even on the old radical right, that Portugal is not a racist society, that Portuguese colonialism was different, that the Portuguese were different, a society with the vocation to mix with others,' he says. 'But the attitudes of the Portuguese are changing when it comes to immigration. Chega is introducing a more xenophobic kind of discourse – and it's working. Chega has broken that political culture on the right.' A key part of that rhetoric has been to link immigration to crime, and Ventura has described Portugal as 'a paradise for banditry, which can enter our territory with impunity'. A global peace index rates Portugal the seventh safest country in the world, although migrants face increasing hostility. A study published by the Casa Brasil in February found that 80 per cent of immigrants interviewed had suffered hate crime due to their nationality. A Democratic Alliance billboard featuring its leader Luis Montenegro. Photograph: Patricia De Melo Moreira/AFP via Getty Images With Chega polling strongly as the election approaches, it appears to have influenced the government. Earlier this month the centre-right administration of Luís Montenegro announced the imminent deportation of 18,000 undocumented migrants, whose residency applications had been rejected by the AIMA, with another 110,000 cases due to be processed. This follows the decision last year to end a policy introduced by the previous socialist administration allowing non-EU migrants without employment contracts to request residency after a year of contributing to the social security system. Montenegro's Democratic Alliance (AD) conservative coalition is leading polls, with the socialist Party in second place. Ahead of his victory in last year's election Montenegro ruled out governing with Chega, describing Ventura as 'xenophobic, racist, populist', meaning he had to form a fragile minority administration which fell apart in March. Yet as the migration issue has become increasingly dominant, the socialist Party candidate, Pedro Nuno Santos, has warned of the 'Trumpification' of Montenegro, and he accused the conservative coalition of trying 'to fight it out with Chega, move closer to Chega, because in reality there is no difference in political point of view or ideas'. The government has sought to bat away the Trump comparison and insists it is correcting years of erroneous immigration policies implemented by the socialist Party. 'The government has shown it is not radical,' said António Leitão Amaro, spokesman for the administration. 'Neither doors wide open nor doors all shut.'
