Following a scandalous written request by Bulgarian MEP Angel Chambaski who directed him to the National Crisis Staff against Coronavirus in Bulgaria "to set up checkpoints at the entrances of all ghettos as a national measure", the world's largest Roma organization IRU that this claim is discriminatory, nationalist and at the same time a violation of human rights, movement and freedom.
He responded on behalf of the IRU and said he would send a letter of protest, both to the Bulgarian Embassy in Skopje and to all relevant international organizations and institutions.
In his written request, Djambaski asked the Bulgarian authorities to "close" the areas inhabited by ethnic Roma as a measure against the spread of coronavirus, which means that only Roma settlements in cities are potentially "hot spots of infection".
As a result, some Bulgarian mayors have responded to this appeal by imposing ethnically-based restrictions on the Roma movement that were not applied to non-Roma residents - an extremely dangerous precedent.
