Discrimination, social segregation, overcrowding, economic precariousness and lack of basic services – these are chronic conditions suffered by the Roma community in Eastern Europe for centuries. And they now they fall among the communities most vulnerable to the novel coronavirus.
Besides compelling people to adopt rigorous hygiene and social distancing practices, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to an unprecedented freezing of economic life, affecting millions of people on the planet.
These circumstances are particularly dramatic for the Roma in most of the post-communist countries in Europe, the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) alerted in a recent report.
Roma communities often live in deficient conditions that multiply the risks of contagion and the effects of the economic crisis that has been unleashed by the pandemic, it said.
Nearly 80 percent of Roma people in Europe live in overcrowded neighborhoods, with three generations of family members sharing the same house.
Many do not have running water at home, making frequent hand washing – the most essential recommendation against coronavirus infection – a luxury.
