James Debono
As the Council of Europe’s Coordinator for Roma and Travelers Activities, Henry Scicluna is facing an onslaught of intolerance against one of Europe’s most marginalised communities; the Roma people.
Scicluna formed part of the first Maltese Diaspora, which took up posts in European institutions after Independence. After retiring in 2003 he decided to dedicate his time on a voluntary basis to Roma issues within the Council of Europe.
His attraction to life on the European mainland was instilled in his childhood during the annual family trips organised by his father.
“By the time I was 16 I had visited several Western European countries and discovered that there was more to life than sea and sun.”
When Malta became independent it joined several international organisations, including the Council of Europe and Scicluna replied to a call for applications for an administrative job in the Court of Human Rights.
“In subsequent years I moved around according to the needs of the Administration and dealt with several social and health issues and I finished as head of the Migration Department. I retired in 2003 and have since worked on a voluntary basis on Roma issues within the Council of Europe itself.”
Scicluna still visits Malta every year and he does not like what he sees.
“I witnessed a serious degradation of the natural and urban environment throughout the Island. As a European Commission official friend of mine told me, environment means nothing to the Maltese. The Island looks more like a construction site than a tourist resort.”
But he acknowledges that people are freer today.
“Censorship is lax and social and religious pressures are minimal. The younger generation however is frivolous and greedy. All they think of is partying and making money.”
Scicluna become interested in issues effecting the Roma community when he joined the Migration Department, which is also responsible for Roma issues.
“I visited several Roma settlements in Central and Eastern Europe and in the Balkans and was appalled to find that shanty towns without water, electricity or drainage existed in the heart of Europe today. I decided that, on retirement, I would dedicate my time to help change things.”
The Roma originally came from India before spreading throughout Eastern and Western Europe where they have always been viewed with suspicion.
In Central and Eastern Europe they were known as 'the Blacks' because of their darker skin and their dress and their customs differentiated them from the inhabitants of the countries where they tried to settle.
Scicluna dispels myths like the common belief that the Roma are nomadic by nature.
“They became nomadic due to being constantly chased away. In fact, they settled in Greece, for 400 years before being chased away by the Ottoman invasion. From there they moved into Eastern and Central Europe and the Balkans.”
Other groups following other routes ended in Spain, the Gitanos; or in Italy, the Sinti; and France, the Manouches. The overwhelming majority are however in Central and Eastern Europe. In Europe they number 10 million.
Over centuries the Roma became increasingly diffident of the non-Roma and jealously stuck to their traditions as a means of self-preservation.
“Living from day to day, shunned by the public, poverty became a way of life. Stereotypes developed - thieves, child snatchers - and stuck in the mind of the public as the gap between the Roma and non-Roma increased.”
Communism did at least offer Roma people living in Eastern Europe a job and shelter on government land.
“With the political changes, the land was privatised and the Roma were evicted. Moreover. they lost their jobs in factories which went bankrupt. They were and are increasingly seen as layabouts who live on social services.”
As a result right wing parties and media found them ideal targets as scapegoats for all the teething problems of these new democracies.
“It is easier to hate dirty, poverty stricken people than well dressed businessmen and politicians.”
During the Balkan wars thousands, including Roma, fled their homes and took refuge in several Western European countries. Following the entry of Romania and Bulgaria into the European Union, Romanian Roma fled the misery in their home towns hoping for a better future in Italy.
But many ended living in makeshift shanty towns after being refused work and forced to beg. The public became alarmed at the numerous shanty towns mushrooming around their cities and at their streets invaded by beggars.
Right wing newspapers –particularly those nearest to Berlusconi’s newly elected Government – were quick to take advantage of the situation and call for action against the mounting criminality allegedly due to the Roma.
“The same newspapers failed to mention the rampant criminality around Naples, which can be safely attributed to non-Roma. Xenophobic sentiments mounted and the Roma camps were attacked and burnt down and the Roma themselves assaulted.”
Scicluna was particularly incensed by the Italian government’s decision to have Roma children finger printed-an episode which recalled the darkest moments in European history.
According to Scicluna the Italians addressed the problem the wrong way. “Security rather than social integration was its main priority. The finger printing of the Roma, including children, was one of the measures envisaged, allegedly to stop the exploitation of children.”
This measure was greeted with protests throughout Europe, particularly from human rights organisations. The Secretary General of the Council of Europe condemned it and so did the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights.
But the European Union has now negotiated modifications in the relevant decrees so that finger-printing is no longer limited to Roma but is extended to all those, Roma or non-Roma who lack identification papers. But according to Scicluna the Roma remain the main target.
“The soft approach taken by the European Commission on this issue is a dangerous signal to other member states which could be tempted to adopt similar measures.”
Yet the perception that gypsies exploit children to beg is very widespread. A letter recently published in the Times of Malta claimed that this practice even existed in Malta.
“In past weeks I have often encountered young women with babies begging for money along the streets of Valletta…these women were gypsies just like the ones I have often had unfortunate encounters with in Italy.”
According to Scicluna this perception is only partly correct as only a minority of gypsies resort to begging.
“Some parents, however do that, very often through necessity, and at other times for convenience. With regard to women with babies, this is very often an exploitation by other Roma who build a network of beggars as a source of income.”
Scicluna wants this abominable practice to be stopped by the police.
“They are being exploited and so are the children. The average Roma I know would be happy to see this phenomenon, which is tarnishing their image disappear.”
But Scicluna also points out that the Roma community has never produced gangsters or terrorists and have never provoked civil unrest.
“Their criminality is mostly limited to thieving which, in any case, remains the action of a minority.”
But the shock felt by Maltese tourists when confronted by gypsies begging for money in Italy suggests a loss of historical memory.
“We do not have beggars in Malta. But, as a child I remember dozens – and in the countryside outsiders were harassed by children to give them pennies. We do not have beggars because we no longer have a reason to beg. The Roma would do likewise if given a job and a decent place to live.”
While most are familiar with the Jewish holocaust, there is no such emphasis in history books on the extermination of Roma people by the Nazis.
“The massive premeditated murder of about 6 million Jews hit the imagination of nations more than the genocide of about half a million Gypsies.”
Scicluna attributes this to a lack of a a gypsy intelligentsia.
“Following the war the Jewish community had several personalities - intellectuals, artists, scientists - who could not only testify but also perpetuate the memory of this crime. The gypsies had none.”
Malta’s geographic position as an island has isolated it from contact with the Roma culture.
The only reference to a gypsy community living in Malta is made by the Order of Saint John’s historian Antonio Bosio who mentions the existence of a small gypsy community in the neighbourhood of Rabat.
But over the past five years the arrival of undocumented boat people was met by a wave of xenophobia similar to that facing gypsies in Europe.
But Scicluna notes a fundamental difference between the two phenomena.
“The Roma are Europeans – in fact, the purest of Indo-Europeans – and, apart from recent migrations, are nationals of the country they live in and have the same religion as the rest of the population. They are disliked because of the image they project due to their miserable conditions and as a result of certain stereotypes, such as thieving, which is, as in any community, the action of a minority.”
On the other hand migrants in Malta are mostly foreigners, black and in many instances Moslem.
“They are disliked because they are not white and they are not Christian – and because they are poor.”
But as Scicluna notes a common tread links Maltese perceptions of irregular migrants to continental perceptions on the Rom people.
“All populations dislike differences. This is even more so in a small homogeneous and insular population like the Maltese.”