EU Urges Hungary To Guarantee Security Of Roma

The Roma community is Hungary`s largest minority making up 5 to 7 percent of a population of 10 million.

The European Commission urged Hungary and other EU states to guarantee the security of Roma people after the killing of a Roma boy and his father in Hungary this week. The man and his 5-year-old son were shot dead on Monday in the latest in a series of attacks on Roma in Hungary in the past year in which seven people have died.

The EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, Vladimir Spidla, said in a statement he was deeply concerned by the reported attacks in Hungary and other countries,"

"The European Commission...calls upon the authorities of all member states to guarantee the personal safety of all persons on their territory," he said, also urging countries to fight poverty and social exclusion among Roma.

Hungary's Justice Minister Tibor Draskovics acknowledged on Tuesday police had failed to solve murder cases against Roma people and promised to boost police presence in rural areas.

But he said police could not erase the country's rising ethnic tensions.

It was not known if Monday's attack was racially motivated but Roma community leaders said it was similar to other attacks and was an indication of systemic aggression against Roma.

The Roma community is Hungary's largest minority making up 5 to 7 percent of a population of 10 million.

The Roma, also known as gypsies, often remain on the margins, lacking jobs and proper education. Recession and job losses have stoked resentment against the community and led to a strengthening of the far-right which fights what it says is a rise in "Roma crime."

"In some cases, Roma are being made scapegoats for wider societal problems," Spidla said in his statement.

In November in the Czech Republic, 500 black-masked people shouting racist slogans tried to attack a Roma ghetto in Litvinov, a town in the northern rust belt where unemployment is double the national average.

Italy was criticised by rights groups and European lawmakers last year for its attitude towards Roma and plans, later modified, to fingerprint Roma people, including children. Italian locals set fire to two Roma camps in Naples last year.