How many roma are there in the world

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Historians say people in Europe in the Middle Ages did not really know where the Roma came from and there was a common belief at the time that they arrived from Egypt, which is how the word gypsy was born. The most likely explanation, as established by leading linguists and ethnologists, is that the Roma people have their origins in India. Exactly when they started to migrate to European countries remains unclear. What is also very difficult to establish with any certainty is the exact population of the Roma in any given country.

Most organisations that give figures have minimum and maximum estimates, and these vary widely. Today, with an estimated population of 10 to 12 million in Europe approximately six million of whom live in the EU , Roma people are the biggest ethnic minority in Europe.

Roma settlements were broken up and the residents dispersed; Roma were required to marry non-Roma on pain of death. They were denied their language and rituals as well as well being excluded from public office and from guild membership. In the seventeenth century Roma were deported to the Americas and Africa. In a round-up of thousands of Roma was carried out; those who had settled were easiest to locate and incarcerate.

The Roma who remained free became a subaltern subclass. From to under the Franco regime, Roma were persecuted and harassed. Local authorities built housing for hungaro Roma. In the large cities, for example Barcelona, these rapidly became deprived ghettoes.

In the central government launched the Gypsy Development Programme, which was reviewed in The Roma community was consulted to a greater extent for the review than for the original programme.

Spain is regarded by many observers as a positive example of government initiatives to integrate Roma into society. Spain adopted a — National Strategy for the Social Inclusion of Roma, which aims to coordinate efforts between the central government and autonomous regions in order to engender social inclusion of Roma.

The departments of education of the autonomous regions also fund training and job promotion programmes disproportionately supporting Roma students over age The regional governments of the Canary Islands and Valencia make explicit reference to the Roma population and culture in their education laws. There also exists a government body in Spain that implements housing programmes for Roma.

However, there are still many steps to be taken before equal rights are enjoyed by Roma in Spain — especially those who more immediately originate from outside the country. Many Roma continue to face discrimination in education, housing, employment and healthcare, forcing them to live on the margins of society. Roma children continue to face discrimination in education, which impacts all areas of life.

Only five per cent of Roma children complete upper secondary education. Reflecting the prejudices held by many people in Spain towards Roma, a survey conducted in found that one in four families would not want their children to attend school with Roma.

Many Roma live in slum-like settlements on the edges of cities and are often faced with forced evictions. Substandard housing conditions, segregation and overcrowding, and discrimination in access to private housing remain important issues.

However, a lack of data on the ethnic origin of school children and of housing occupancy makes it difficult to assess problems and solutions in education and housing. The main occupations of Roma — mobile trading, shop work, construction, seasonal agriculture, and hotel and restaurant work — are precarious and often on a part-time or fixed-term basis, making it difficult to improve their economic prospects. As a result of this situation, Roma households are 20 per cent more likely to be at risk of poverty than the general population of Spain and twice as likely to be food insecure.

Despite this worrying global situation, we reaffirm our commitment to safeguarding the rights of minority and indigenous communities and implementing indivisible human rights for all.

Sign up to Minority rights Group International's newsletter to stay up to date with the latest news and publications. Since August, MRG has been assisting Afghan minority activists and staff from our partner organizations as their lives and their work came under threat with the return of the Taliban.

We need your help. For the last three years, we at MRG have run projects promoting freedom of religion and belief across Asia. In Afghanistan we have fostered strong partnerships with amazing local organizations representing ethnic and religious minorities.

They were doing outstanding work, educating minority community members about their rights, collecting evidence of discrimination and human rights abuses, and carrying out advocacy. Not all have been able to flee. Many had no option but to go into hiding.

Some did not have a valid passport. Activists can no longer carry out the work they had embarked on. They can no longer draw a salary, which means they cannot feed their families. With a season of failed crops and a cold winter ahead, the future is bleak for too many. We refuse to leave Afghanistan behind. We are asking you today to stand by us as we stand by them. We will also use your donations to support our Afghan partners to pay their staff until they can regroup and make new plans, to use their networks to gather and send out information when it is safe to do so, and to seek passports and travel options for those who are most vulnerable and who have no option but to flee to safety.

Azadeh worked for a global organization offering family planning services. Standing for everything the Taliban systematically reject, Azadeh had no option but to flee to Pakistan. MRG is working with our partners in Pakistan to support many brave Afghans who have escaped Afghanistan because of their humanitarian or human rights work or their faith.

They are now in various secure locations established by our local partners on the ground in Pakistan. Although they are safer in Pakistan than Afghanistan, Hazara Shia and other religious minorities are also persecuted there. We need your help, to support those who put their lives on the line for basic human rights principles we all believe in: equality, mutual respect, and freedom of belief and expression. The situation on the ground changes daily as more people arrive and some leave.

Aluminium mining in Baphlimali, India, has caused environment devastation and has wrecked the lifestyle of thousands of Adivasis. For centuries, Adivasi communities like the Paraja, Jhodia, Penga and Kondh have been living amidst the Baphlimali foothills.

For generations they have lived in harmony with nature. They lived through rain fed subsistence agriculture of millet, cereals, pulses, rice and collection of non-timber forest produce, e. With widespread mining activities and linked deforestation, they have lost access to forest products and to the much needed pasture land in the vicinity of their villages. Your help will mean that MRG can support communities like these to help decision makers listen better to get priorities right for local people and help them to protect their environment and restore what has been damaged.

The above picture is of a tribal woman forcibly displaced from her home and land by District Forest Officers in the district of Ganjam, Odisha. Her cashew plantation burned in the name of protection of forests. Please note that the picture is to illustrate the story and is not from Baphlimali. Esther is a member of the indigenous Ogiek community living in the Mau Forest in Kenya. Her family lives in one of the most isolated and inaccessible parts of the forest, with no roads, no health facilities and no government social infrastructure.