Roma population groups

Roma are among the most marginalised minority population groups in Europe, with a long history of persecution and statelessness that continues today. The term ‘Roma’ refers not only to Roma people but to a diverse array of communities, what the Council of Europe describes as a ‘complex and multi-layered’ conglomerate of identities united more by the common experience of discrimination and anti-gypsyism than by cultural affinity.

Given this context of myriad identities, we use the umbrella term ‘Roma’ to refer to a wide range of population groups, following terminology that the Council of Europe employs:

• Roma, Sinti/Manush, Calé, Kaale, Romanichals, Boyash/Rudari;
• Balkan Egyptians (Egyptians and Ashkali);
• Eastern groups (Dom, Lom and Abdal); and
• Travellers, Yenish, and persons who identify as ‘Gens du Voyage’ and Gypsies.

The issue of over-representation of Roma population groups in European prisons is one that rests heavily on the stigmatisation of Roma, which precipitates a web of social issues, ranging from poverty, discriminatory policing, a lack of access to education and housing, and, throughout history and again today, a populist political tendency to scapegoat Roma people for societal ills. In the face of these pressures, some Roma have been forced into poverty, homelessness and migration. One of the primary challenges to Roma population groups is what could be called a lack of ‘legibility’ to state mechanisms, where the state relies on markers like birth certificates and permanent addresses to keep a record of citizens. Roma have a lesser tendency to have these ‘legitimating’ marks of citizenship, likely given a wariness to self-identify along ethnic lines to avoid stigma and discriminatory actions. This lack of ‘legibility’ of Roma populations poses a challenge to governments, organisations and researchers alike, especially in the process of data collection, where researchers tend to rely on wide-ranging estimates of Roma population size. Within these estimations, sometimes a distinction is made between “indigenous Roma” and “migrant Roma”, but not always.

Roma prison populations are highest, logically, where general Roma populations are most concentrated, namely in Eastern Europe. Yet Roma often account for an inordinately high per capita prison population even in places where their numbers in the national population are negligible.

In those Eastern European countries where Roma account for between 5 and 10 per cent of the general population, estimates of Roma prison populations are, in certain cases, dramatically elevated. In Bulgaria, where estimates of the national Roma population range from 4.9 per cent to 10 per cent (respectively, UN independent expert on minority issues on her mission to Bulgaria [A/HRC/19/56/Add.2], 3 January 2012, para.3 and Council of Europe, 2012), evaluations of prison populations suggest that Roma represent approximately 50 per cent of inmates (Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, 2017). Likewise, despite accounting for approximately 7 per cent of the national population of Hungary, Roma are estimated to make up around 40 per cent of the total prison population (Tóth and Kádár, 2013, in Institute for Criminal Policy Research, 2017 and Council of Europe, 2012).

In countries where the representation of Roma population groups is low, this over-representation often maintains: the Finnish prison population in 2010 was composed of 6 per cent Roma (KRITS Foundation, 2017) in spite of a national population of only 0.21 per cent (Council of Europe, 2012); Latvia follows the same pattern, where over 8 per cent of prisoners are Roma (based on data from the FIDH Latvian Human Rights Commission, 2018) despite an estimated national population of 0.56 per cent (Council of Europe, 2012)—Roma are over 11 times more likely to be imprisoned than ethnic Latvians. And in Ireland, where Roma population groups, predominantly Travellers, compose roughly 0.7 per cent of the general population (Irish Penal Reform Trust, 2014; Council of Europe, 2012), Roma men make up 15 per cent of the prison population and Roma women 22 per cent of Irish female prisoners (Lalor, 2017; Pavee Point Traveller & Roma Centre and National Traveller Women’s Forum, 2017). In this vein, researchers have placed particular emphasis on the over-representation of Roma women and minors in detention as being in some cases more prevalent than male imprisonment. In Croatia, where a mere 0.79 per cent of the general population is Roma (Council of Europe, 2012), an estimated 38 per cent of minors are of Roma descent (response to COPE questionnaire, 2016). Roma account for 25 per cent of women prisoners in Spain (Barañi Project, 1999). One organisation reports that 80 per cent of detainees in the women’s prison in Sliven, Bulgaria are Roma (Child & Space, see below, COPE report ‘Roma & Traveller Children with a Parent in Prison: A Follow-Up Report with Case Studies & Recommendations’).

Defining exact numbers of individual Roma—both outside prisons and within—is an impossible task, and not the goal of COPE’s interest in and advocacy around data collection. The purpose instead is to collect data in order to highlight the clear over-representation of Roma in Europe’s prisons, and in turn to advocate against anti-gypsyism and for more just treatment of Roma prisoners and their children.

The primary conundrum in collecting data on Roma populations in Europe is the lack of legibility to mechanisms, as noted above. Even for baseline national population data, COPE’s research relies on statistics released in 2012 by the Secretary General of the Council of Europe for Roma Issues, which provide estimates based on last-available census results, some of which were last produced over fifty years ago. Population estimates range within 2,000 people; some estimates have a range of several million people. Some EU countries provide no ethnic data at all. And, as noted, the fact that anti-Roma measures within and outside of prisons have been a result of Roma self-identification in censuses and other studies is a strong disincentive to provide information as well. The Council of Europe’s Ad Hoc Committee of Experts on Roma Issues (CAHROM) procured a ‘Thematic Report on Combating Anti-Gypsyism, Hate Speech and Hate Crime Against Roma’, which cites a case in the Czech Republic where over the span of 10 years, the number of census-declared people of Roma nationality decreased by over 20,000 people; in the later census, a further 784 people declared Roma nationality in combination with having Czech or Slovak nationality. In a survey in Serbia, CAHROM similarly noted a tendency among Roma population groups to ‘hide or deny their ethnic origins’, preferring to identify as Ashkali or Egyptians who are ethnically unrelated to Roma. In both cases, CAHROM explains the ambivalence to identify as Roma because of cultural stigmatisation leading to anti-Roma measures that have ‘brought about mistrust on the part of Roma towards any state activities targeted at identifying people of Roma nationality’.

Children of Roma and Traveller Prisoners: A Short Guide (2017)

Roma and Traveller Children with a Parent in Prison: Follow-up Report (2018)

1. Descriptive Glossary of Terms relating to Roma issues (Council of Europe, 2012)
2. The Strasbourg Declaration on Roma (Council of Europe, 2010)
3. Roma Belong: Statelessness, Discrimination & Marginalisation of Roma in the Western Balkans and Ukraine (European Roma Rights Centre, 2017)
4. Recent Migration of Roma in Europe (OSCE & CoE, 2010)

This is in no way an exhaustive list of resources and we are always open to adding new relevant information.