In times of pandemic and global health crisis, it is important to remember the most vulnerable – and often invisible – young children and their families.

The Roma population is the largest minority in Europe. Eighty percent are children and families at risk of poverty, who live without adequate housing, in crowded and unhealthy formal settlements or precarious informal slums, many of them without access to electricity, running and drinking water and sewerage. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated challenges that many Roma communities face.

REYN, the community of early childhood professionals and practitioners promoting the wellbeing and holistic development of Romani and Traveller children in their early years, feels the urgency to put in the spotlight those children and families.

Knowing the long-lasting impact that the early years have on the health and wellbeing of every individual throughout their lives, we are concerned about the short- and long-term impact of the COVID-19 crisis on young Romani and Traveller children living on the margins. We urge European leaders and country leaders to provide every child with the proper conditions to ensure protection and support in all aspects of life.

Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban on Friday said a Supreme Court ruling awarding damages to schoolchildren from the Roma minority who were put in separate classes was unfair and pledged to change the law to prevent any future such decisions.

Orban, who has gradually assumed control over many aspects of life in post-communist Hungary, sparked protests in Budapest when he hinted in January that the state should disobey any order to pay restitution to the Roma, and train them instead.

The case concerns an elementary school in Gyongyospata, an eastern town that has been a flashpoint of ethnic tensions. The Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that it had given substandard education to the Roma children after confining them to the ground floor.

It ordered the school district and the town to pay the students a combined $310,000 (254,182 pounds) in damages, confirming a finding by ombundsman for the minority, who reported in 2011 that the Roma had been segregated for years.

Link: https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-hungary-roma-segregation-ruling/hungary-ruling-in-roma-segregation-case-unfair-pm-orban-idUKKBN22R1DL?fbclid=IwAR2cfvDLgarpgw2EAPoAhPIyKm7H07Q836OA1TdFBQvJdOKBpSapqKHHQt4