FRA stresses the need for all countries to consult with Roma and Travellers, their representative organisations and civil society when designing and implementing any new measures. Measures should focus on:

1. Intensifying the fight against discrimination - the fight against discrimination and antigypsyism must be a priority in the post 2020 Roma equality and inclusion policy and should be mainstreamed across all policy areas.
2. Improving hate crime recording - authorities should record hate crime incidents effectively to facilitate investigation and prosecution. This would help increase trust in police and encourage reporting of attacks.
3. Tackling racism and ending ethnic profiling – tackle structural racism and discrimination to improve trust in authorities. Including Roma and Travellers among public authorities or police staff would also boost trust.
4. Raising awareness of anti-discriminatory legislation and bodies – improve access to effective complaint mechanisms to increase reporting of discrimination.
5. Ensuring equal access to education – tailor education to Roma and Travellers’ needs through, for example, home schooling, distance learning etc. and create incentives so they reach a higher level education.
6. Countering negative stereotypes – tackle negative stereotypes in the general population, through education for example.
7. Promoting equal access to employment – provide support to young Roma and Travellers to get their first work experience and provide employers with incentives to hire them. Focus on women to help them enter the labour market.
8. Ensuring equal access to healthcare – ensure Roma and Travellers benefit from public health insurance schemes, boost preventative healthcare and health education. Work with their representatives to identify and effectively address the main barriers.
9. Reducing poverty and eliminating hunger – eliminate hunger by providing targeted support (such as school lunches) and ensure Roma and Travellers can access social benefits.
10. Improving housing conditions – ensure Roma and Travellers can access the housing market, provide sufficient halting sites and protect people from forced evictions.

Living, working and housing conditions, as well as access to adequate health services, are important elements for long life expectancy.

Roma and Travellers in the six survey countries have a much lower life expectancy than the general population – on average, by 9.8 years for women and 10.2 years for men.

For women, the biggest difference is in Belgium (13.6 years) and the smallest difference is in the UK (7.1 years).

For men, the biggest difference is in Belgium (14.2 years) and the smallest difference is in France (7.9 years).

Around one in 10 Roma and Travellers have experienced discrimination when accessing healthcare in the past year. Precarious living conditions also increase health risks.

The health of almost every third (29%) Roma and Traveller limits their usual activities, compared with one in four (25%) among the general population.

Health also affects employment, especially for men: 36% said that they did not seek work because of their health.

Many Roma and Travellers have difficulties to make ends meet. Some of them ‘went to bed hungry’ at least once in the month before the survey – for example, every fifth Roma and Traveller (22%) went hungry to bed in Sweden.

A quarter of Roma and Traveller children (23%) live in a household that is unable to afford healthy food or heating, has trouble paying the rent or cannot afford a week’s holiday, compared to 7% of the general population. This is highest in Sweden where over half of Roma and Travellers children (51%) live in households that struggle financially.

Many Roma and Travellers live in conditions of severe housing deprivation (21%) or do not have access to basic services, such as tap water or public transport.

The situation varies based on the country and type of housing. For example, every third Traveller in Belgium (32%) and 14% of Travellers in France and 16% in the UK do not have tap water in their mobile homes.

More than 90% of Travellers in Ireland, Belgium and the Netherlands feel that there are not enough places – especially appropriate halting sites – for them to live. Moreover, 4% say that they were evicted at least once in the past five years.

Many report problems in their neighbourhood. About half of the Roma in the Netherlands (51%) and Roma and Traveller households in Sweden (51%) mention crime, violence and vandalism in their neighbourhoods.

Discrimination is also an issue when looking for housing. Almost half of the respondents felt discriminated against when looking for housing in the past five years.

Most of Roma and Traveller children aged 6-15 (91%) participate in some form of state education system. However, two thirds of Roma and Travellers aged 18–24 years have completed only lower secondary education and do not continue in further studies. Almost none have completed third-level education.

The younger generation is also more likely to attend school or not drop out of primary education, except in the United Kingdom.

The most common reasons for not continuing in education is the need to work (25%), marriage, pregnancy, childbirth or relocation during the year (all 14%).

Almost a third (30%) of Roma and Traveller parents say that their children were verbally harassed at school because of their background.

Every second (51%) parent of compulsory schooling age child in Sweden speaks of harassment. In France, it is 18% of parents.

Almost every third Roma or Traveller (30%) felt discriminated against when in contact with the school (as parent or student) in the five years preceding the survey.

The proportion of Roma and Travellers in work is well below the employment rate of the general population. It ranges from 15% in Ireland to 55% for Travellers in the Netherlands.

Fewer women tend to have jobs. The gender gap is high, except in Ireland. It ranges from 10 percentage points in Sweden to 52 percentage points in the UK.

The employment situation is particularly difficult for the young. Every second Roma and Traveller aged 16–24 years is not in employment, education or training. This applies particularly to young women (58%) rather than young men (36%).

Discrimination is a common reason for not looking for work. 26% of Roma and Traveller men and 11% of women think they will not get a job because of their background. Every fourth felt discriminated against when looking for work in the past year.

Discrimination against Roma and Travellers is widespread. Almost half of the respondents (45%) felt discriminated against in the year before the survey. It is most common when entering a shop (33%), going to a restaurant, night club or hotel (27%) or when looking for a job (23%). Moreover, younger respondents felt more discriminated than older ones.

Roma in the Netherlands (76%) and Travellers in Ireland (65%) felt most discriminated against because of their background. In contrast, 21% of Roma and 19% of Caravan Dwellers felt discriminated against in Belgium.

Antigypsyism is also deeply rooted. FRA’s Fundamental Rights Survey shows that almost half of the general population in the EU (45%) feel (totally) uncomfortable with having Roma or Travellers as neighbours. Among the countries surveyed, this is highest in France (52%) and lowest in Sweden (30%).

Almost half of the Roma and Travellers surveyed (44%) experienced hate-motivated harassment in the year before the survey and 7% were physically attacked because of being Roma and Travellers.

Hate motivated harassment is highest in the Netherlands where 83% of Roma say they experienced harassment because of their ethnic background.

Underreporting is an issue. Most Roma and Travellers (93%) did not report incidents to anyone. More than half (53%) did not report the attack because they thought nothing would happen if they did.

Roma in the Netherlands, and Roma and Travellers in Sweden have the highest rates of non-reporting from all surveyed groups, with almost all physical attacks unreported.

Trust in the police and legal system among Roma and Travellers is low. It is notably lower among those who feel they have been victims of discrimination, harassment and violence.

One in 10 respondents (11%) say they were stopped by the police in the past year because of being a Roma or Traveller. Police officers physically assaulted some 4% of Roma and Travellers in the past five years because of their background.

Trust in the police is highest among Roma respondents in Belgium, followed by Roma and Travellers in Sweden. It is the lowest among respondents in the Netherlands.

When it comes to trusting the legal system, the results are similar. It is higher for Roma in Belgium, and Roma and Travellers in Sweden, and lower among Roma in the Netherlands.

Only every second Roma and Traveller (53%) is aware of laws prohibiting discrimination based on skin colour, ethnic origin or religion. Only one third of respondents (33%) know of at least one institution that deals with discrimination and equality issues in their country.

Reporting discrimination is also very low. Over the past five years only one in five incidents (21%) was reported anywhere, and of those only 5% to an equality body.

Roma and Travellers in Europe have been experiencing discrimination, persecution and exclusion for centuries. Today, many still do not enjoy their basic human rights.

The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) previously surveyed Roma discrimination in 2011 and 2016 in selected countries.

The European Commission asked for this survey to fill in data gaps. It provides evidence on Roma and Travellers’ experiences of fundamental rights in countries not covered previously - Belgium, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

The findings provide data on core indicators used to monitor the implementation of the EU Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies up to 2020. They will also help shape new indicators for post-2020 EU initiatives on Roma equality and inclusion.

The results will help policymakers formulate responses at EU and national levels, and monitor their implementation. They will also feed into the new EU Roma Strategic Framework for Equality, Inclusion and Participation, to be released later in 2020.

Compared to the nine countries covered by previous research (2016 second European Union Minorities and Discrimination survey EU-MIDIS II), the socio-economic situation of Roma and Travellers in Belgium, France, Ireland, Sweden, The Netherlands, The United Kingdom seems to be better. However, they suffer more discrimination and harassment.

• Discrimination - 45% of Roma and Travellers in the six countries felt discriminated against because of their background compared to 26% of Roma in the other nine EU countries covered by EU-MIDIS II survey.
• Harassment - 44 % said that they had experienced hate-motivated harassment in the 12 months before the survey compared to 30% of Roma in the EU-MIDIS II survey.
• Violence - 7% said that they were physically attacked due to being Roma or Traveller in 12 months before the survey. This is a bit higher than the prevalence of physical attacks against Roma in EU-MIDIS II (4 %).
• Trust - Similarly, to EU-MIDIS II, the experiences of discrimination, harassment or violence affect Roma and Travellers’ trust in police and institutions.
• Education - The share of young Roma and Travellers aged 18-24 years who have attained at most lower secondary education and does not continue in education or training ranges between 30% in Sweden and 91% in case of Gypsies and Travellers in the UK. In the EU MIDIS II survey, the results were similar.
• Employment - Every second young Roma and Traveller aged 16 to 24 years is not in employment, education or training. This number is slightly lower than the average across the nine EU Member States in EU-MIDIS II but still much higher than the rate for the general population.
• Hunger - Already the EU-MIDIS II survey showed that every fourth Roma lives in a household where people face hunger at least once in the last month. This survey shows that for some of the more affluent countries surveyed the situation is similar.

The terms 'Roma’ and ‘Travellers’ are used as umbrella terms according to the Council of Europe’s definition. They include Roma, Sinti, Kale, Romanichals, Boyash/Rudari, Balkan Egyptians, Eastern groups (Dom, Lom and Abdal) and groups such as Travellers, Yenish, and the people who identify themselves as Gypsies or are called ‘Gens du voyage'.

The survey targeted individuals aged 16 or over who self-identify as having a Roma or Traveller background, who lived in private households and whose usual place of residence was the survey country for at least six of the 12 months before the survey.

The survey collected data on Roma and Travellers’ living conditions and their experiences of and opinions on discrimination and victimisation.

The survey was carried out in Belgium, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom from December to July 2019. This is the first time these communities were surveyed collectively. It complements earlier FRA research in nine other EU countries.

After in-depth background research, consultations with key stakeholders, experts and the Roma and Traveller communities in the first half of 2018. FRA tested the fieldwork approach in these countries in August 2018. The survey used random and non-random sampling methodologies. The best possible sampling design was chosen for each target group in each of the countries to achieve representative results for the surveyed groups. FRA included Roma and Travellers in the preparation, sampling and implementation of the survey to build trust in the communities for them to participate in the survey. FRA contracted a major survey company, Ipsos MORI, to carry out the survey. It worked with national fieldwork agencies for the survey. In some countries, interviewers were part of the Roma or Travellers communities, or were mediators who worked with the communities. All interviewers and fieldwork supervisors who had no Roma or Travellers background had to undergo tailored cultural awareness training, sometimes provided by the communities themselves. The survey collected information through face-to-face interviews. At the beginning of the interview respondents could select from a list tailored to each survey group how they would describe themselves the best, including multiple identities. The interview only took place when respondents self-identified as belonging to a Roma or Travellers group.

The final survey methodology used in each country depended on the method best suited for each country and population group. This choice was based on an expert consultation and practical considerations, such as minimum sample size and the feasibility of achieving it.

The survey covered 4,659 responents and their 8,234 co-habitants living in 4,449 households.

Number of respondents and estimated population size per target group per country

Country	Target group	Estimated population size	Sample
Belgium	Caravan Dwellers in halting sites	Flanders and Brussels: 2,300;Wallonia: unknown	124
	Roma	30,000	482
France	Travellers (Gens du voyage) in halting sites	250,000-300,000	1,544
Ireland	Travellers	40,000	518
The Netherlands		Roma	13,000	201
Travellers and Sinti in halting sites	30,000	511
Sweden	Roma and Travellers	50,000	404
United Kingdom	Romany Gypsies and Irish Travellers in halting sites	120,000	875

FRA set up the survey to be representative for each specific group and country. Conducting a representative quantitative survey of Roma and Travellers in these selected countries was particularly challenging. None of the survey countries had lists or other sampling frames on Roma and Travellers which could be used to identify potential respondents. For further details see the report’s annex . The soon-to-be published technical report will provide further information.

Trained interviewers carried out the face-to-face interviews. They informed respondents about their rights and asked for their consent prior to asking the survey questions. The survey data was stored securely and later anonymised. The final dataset does not contain any personal information that would allow respondents to be identified. The survey results are presented in tables and graphs which aggregate the results for a large number of respondents, further ensuring that individual respondents cannot be recognised.

FRA will make the survey results available through an online data explorer on its website in the first half of 2021.

FRA does not rank EU Member States in its reports. However, FRA’s reports present key results by country. Later on, people will be able to use the survey’s data explorer to see more individual country results relative to other countries with respect to specific survey questions.

"You get followed around all the time, especially in shops (self-serve checkouts particularly). It is difficult to get work, I couldn’t even get work in a charity shop as a volunteer. A wedding got cancelled once because they found out that the attendants were travellers. Sometimes when we go to restaurants they tell us there is a two-hour wait and only when we refuse to leave do they ‘find’ us a table."

"It would be good if there was a drop-in centre for Travellers and maybe somewhere run by Travellers for Travellers so that we would feel safe when reporting incidents."

"We do not report discrimination against us as nothing ever gets done and the police do not treat us with respect."

“I have been discriminated against three times in Sweden, at a petrol station, twice at camping sites. I was called a Gypsy at the petrol station and driven out. Since I had a witness I was able to receive damage payments. I have also been denied a place at campsites because of my clothes.”

“I am a young 16-year-old girl just about to finish sixth year of secondary school and I am really worried that I will not get a chance in life because I am a Traveller.”

“I would like more education opportunities for our children to be educated at home from the age of 11 [...] this would allow them to have better chances of gaining professional qualifications in the future, but we are left with nothing.”

“My 13-year-old son never dared to tell at school that he was a caravan resident, as a precaution against being treated badly. In fact, we cannot express our identity freely and have to hide, this is not normal.”

 

“I changed jobs about six months ago because in my previous job I was judged for living in a trailer.This was a job at the court as a legal administrative assistant, for which I have studied for a long time.It should not matter what my home address is if I have done the right training and am suitable for the work I do.I feel that, if they had known my address before I was hired and proved my competences, they would not have hired me in the first place.”

“The living conditions that me and my baby are forced to live in are totally unacceptable in this day and age. We live in wet and damp conditions which are very unhealthy for both myself and my baby.”

“The dampness is my children’s rooms is not healthy for my boys, who suffer from asthma.”

“Our area is located near an asbestos depot, we are forced to move every two or three months because there is no room in the camps.”

 

“I now live in a house where I can hardly afford the rent, we were forced to leave the caravan camp, the land was sold, the municipality gave us a relocation premium which was spent on furnishing the rental home. I’m still saving old iron and metals to try to make ends meet and pay other bills. I am also helped by others to eat. I want to leave, if I can buy a caravan suitable for traveling, I want to get immediately away. There must be camps where caravans can stand again. Round trips must be possible again without problems. If I had the money to purchase good travel facilities, I would be gone, and sell my furniture immediately.”

“I wanted to buy a condominium but the association did not approve it because of Romani surnames. I had to change to a Swedish surname.”

“My freedom to live as I want is not respected by local authorities or the government. Nothing is being done for travelling people who want to continue to live a traditional life on a halting site or a traveller specific group housing scheme. Travellers don’t want to mix with other Travellers on sites or in housing. Families want to remain on sites or in group schemes where it is only one extended family.”

“The municipality parks us in front of a wastewater facility. We are isolated from the city.”