Country: Bulgaria

Group: Roma

Date Finalized: 04/08/2022

Team: Gabriel Cardenas (lead), William Nicholson, Gabby Staker, Deneb Bobadilla

            There is substantial evidence to conclude the Bulgarian government and people have discriminated against the Bulgarian Romani people both past and present. The overall data quality of this report is (3/3), with many sources discussing the issue.

            In 2011 the Bulgarian census numbered the Romani people 4.9 percent of their total population, while non-governmental sources believe the number to be higher, around 10 to 20.9 percent (Minority Rights Group International, 2018;Shyrokonis, 2020). Their population holds a diverse number of “clan affiliations, languages and traditional occupations”, and half of the Roma are Muslim (Minority Rights Group International, 2018). During the communist rule of Bulgaria, the government viewed the Roma as deviant minority group, and thus they enacted policies aimed to assimilate them (Barany, 2000). After 1974 the Roma people disappeared from public and census records and were no longer identified as a minority. It was not until the fall of communist rule did the government refer to the Roma as a minority again (Barany, 2020). These efforts had long lasting effects on the Roma, in that many today do not identify themselves as Roma on the Bulgarian census, and the exact number of Romani in Bulgaria is not confirmed (Minority Rights Group International, 2018; Shyrokonis, 2020; Giroud, et al. 2021).

The Romani people in Bulgaria face many kinds of discrimination today. They live in segregated communities with little access to running water, electricity, and poor education (Shyrokonis, 2020). Bulgarian protesters have rallied behind anti-Roma sediment provoked and reinforced by political leaders, “while the Roma frequently face belligerent hatred and discrimination, ‘it is even worse before elections’” (Hruby, n.d.). These rallies often turn violent; smashed windows, burned down houses, and assault on Roma people are some of the products of these protests (Hruby, n.d.). In 2011, protestors chanted “Gypsies into soap” which is “a reference to the Holocaust practice of manufacturing soap from the corpses of concentration camp victims” (Shyrokonis, 2020). Roma have even been called “parasite communities” and were falsely linked to corruption and criminal activity in 2011 (BBC, 2011). The Commissioner for Humans Rights of the Council of Europe reported on her visit to Bulgaria in 2019 stating, “Hate speech and hostility against Roma persist at all levels of society, with little if any response from the authorities to counter this long-standing phenomenon” (Mijatovic, 2019, pg. 4). She continues by stating that Roma discrimination extends to housing, employment, education, and overall “societal hostility and institutional discrimination” (Mijatovic, 2019, pg. 6). The treatment of Roma in Bulgaria is discriminatory in nature and there is ample evidence to come to this conclusion. This discrimination is perpetuated by the majority group and is reinforced by politicians that use the Romani as a rallying call to unite their voter base.

Sources

  1. Minority Rights Group (2018). Bulgaria, Roma, (July, 2018). Minority Rights Group International. https://minorityrights.org/minorities/roma-2/
  2. Mijatovic, D. (31 March 2020). Commissioner For Human Rights of the Council of Europe: Report Following Her Visit to Bulgaria From 25 to 29 November 2019. Council of Europe.  https://rm.coe.int/report-on-the-visit-to-bulgaria-from-25-to-29-november-2019-by-dunja-m/16809cde16
  3. Shyrokonis, Y. (20 January 2020). EU Citizenship, but no shoes: the Roma of Bulgaria. Open Democracy. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/eu-citizenship-no-shoes-roma-bulgaria/
  4. Barany, Z. (2000). Politics and the Roma in state-socialist Eastern Europe. Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 33(4), 421–437. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0967-067X(00)00014-3
  5. Hruby, D. (n.d). Their Homes were Burned Down in Racist Violence. Then Officials told them to flee. Cable News Network. https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2019/05/world/roma-bulgaria-violence-eu-elections-cnnphotos/#:~:text=for%20four%20consecutive%20nights%20ethnic%20bulgarians%2C%20some%20armed%20with%20metal%20batons%2C%20took%20to%20the%20cobblestone%20streets%20to%20demand%20that%20gabrovo%20be%20cleansed%20of%20its%20roma%20community
  6. BBC (2011). Bulgaria rally Links Roma to organized crime, (1 October 2011). British Broadcasting Corporation. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-15140291
  7. Giroud, A., Visintin, E. P., Green, E. G., & Durrheim, K. (2021). ‘I don’t feel insulted’: Constructions of prejudice and identity performance among Roma in Bulgaria. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1002/casp.2524
  8. 2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Bulgaria, (March 30 2021). Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. https://www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/bulgaria/