The Roma people are discriminated on employment and most of them do not benefit from professional orientation and formation services. A very low number of Romanies were registered with local employment agencies. The Roma are also discriminated when it goes to the provision of protection or social assistance in case of unemployment, says the monitoring report for the first half of 2020 on labor and social protection based on the National Action Plan to Support the Roma Population that was presented by the Public Association “Voice of the Roma”.
In a news conference at IPN, Silvia Feraru, secretary of the Coalition “Voice of the Roma”, said the analysis of data showed the implementation level of the National Action Plan to Support the Roma Population in the first half of 2020 on labor and social protection is unsatisfactory, standing at 17.5%. “The responsible institutions from the monitored localities didn’t take action according to the plan, but responded to the request made by the Coalition “Voice of the Roma”, providing the available data, adjusting the general information to the indicators of the plan. The local public authorities do not know about the existence of the action plan,” stated Silvia Feraru.
She noted the inter-ministerial working group consisting of representatives of the central and local public authorities and three representatives of Roma civil society were to meet twice a year, but no meeting was held in the first half of this year to coordinate the process of implementing the plan’s actions.
Valeriu Căldăraru, executive director of the National Association of Community Mediators, presented the results of the monitoring report on community mediators. He said the Interethnic Relations Agency since the start of 2020 has taken no measures to employ new community mediators. At the beginning of 2020, there were 21 vacancies of community mediator. Now there are 20 such vacancies.
The responses provided by the local public authorities of the five monitored localities that are mainly populated by Romanies (Schinoasa village of Ţibirica commune, Parcani village of Răciula commune, Ursari village of Călăraşi district and the towns of Hâceşti and Edineţ) show there is by one community mediator in the five localities.
Valeriu Căldăraru noted that over 1,500 persons of Roma ethnicity live in Edineţ town. Owing to the large number of Romanies there, the local mediator cannot fulfill his duties and cannot facilitate the Roma’s access to state institutions, In Ursari, the community mediator who was hired at the end of 2019 hasn’t yet benefitted from the necessary training. The non-ensuring of such training for community mediators is a nationwide problem.
The minoring didn’t cover 180 localities that are inhabited by about 250,000 Romanies.
