Country: Iraq

Group: Roma

Date Finalized: 9/28/2021

Team: Analisa Jimenez (lead), Nichole Dahlen, Elizabeth Ardila, Omer Carrillo, Alicia Hernandez

          Roma, or Kawliyah, are predominantly Shi’a or Sunni Muslims that reside in isolation in southern Iraq with a population ranging from 50,000 to 200,000 (Minority Rights, 2018). They live in harsh conditions, characterized by poverty and lack of access to basic needs such as water, food, healthcare, social programs, or nationality documents that would allow them to relocate voluntarily (Minority Rights, 2017). Roma children are barred from schools and subjugated to a stateless identity. Roma communities are through association with prostitution and immorality by the nationalist body. Following Hussein’s regime the Shi’a militia’s Mahdi Army attacked a Roma village in 2004 displacing the community’s 136 families (El-Liethy, n.d.). Religiusly conservative Zawabei tribesmen displaced Romas in the entertainment district of Kamalia. Arbitrary evictions occurred in which Roma families were evicted from their homes without notice based solely on ethnic persecution (Meri, n.d.). Fawar village in Diwaniyah has seen a decrease in Romani population from two thousand prior to the 2003 invasion to 150 in 2015 (Edgcumbe, 2021). Thousands of Romani people have fled to the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan where they retain a degree of protection from authorities.

Quality of data ranks as a 3 as it is from reputable academic, government and primary sources. 

Sources

  1. Home Office (2019). Country Policy and Information Note Iraq: Religious minorities. Retrieved from  https://www.justice.gov/eoir/page/file/1215081/download
  2. El-Liethy, I. (n.d.). The Pogrom Starts Again: Roma Hunting in Iraq. Roma hunting in Iraq.  Retrieved from http://www.kelebekler.com/occ/romiraq-gb.htm. 
  3. S. Edgcumbe. (2021, January 19). The Enduring Marginalisation of the Roma: Conflict and Asylum. 
  4. MERI. (n.d.). Retrieved September 29, 2021, from http://www.meri-k.org/publication/were-real-iraqis-securing-roma-rights-and-integration/roma-iraq/.
  5. Minority Rights Group International, World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples – Iraq : Roma, November 2017. Retrieved from https://www.refworld.org/docid/5a53612a7.html 
  6. Minority Rights Group International. (2017, November 29). Roma. Minority Rights Group. https://minorityrights.org/minorities/roma-21/