The Roma people (Czech: Romové), commonly known as Gypsies (Czech: Cikáni), constitute a minority in the Czech Republic. According to the last census from 2001, only 11,746 persons (0.1% of the total population) declared themselves as Roma. But the actual number is much higher, estimated at 200–300,000 people (2–3% of the total population). More than 99% of today's Roma are descendants of immigrants from Slovakia, who were brought here within the former Czechoslovakia after the World War II.
Mutual relations between the Czechs and Roma are the worst from all ethnic groups in the country.
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Roma were exterminated by Nazi German mobile killing units and in camps such as the ones at Lety and Auschwitz. 90% of native Roma died, and were replaced by Roma from neighboring Slovakia and Romania.
During the communist years unsuccessful attempts to change the nomadic living style of Roma were undertaken by the regime. Many Romani people were settled in panel houses that were, however, sooner or later utterly demolished (Chánov near Most, Luník IX in Košice). Attempts to stop the growth of the Romani population were made especially in Slovakia, where Romani women got financial offers for sterilization. After 1989, some Romani women started to accuse the state of "forced sterilizations" arguing that they were not properly informed of what the "sterilization" meant. According to Czech ombudsman Otakar Motejl, "at least 50 Romani women were unlawfully sterilized". However, Czech representative at UN protested against such accusations, claiming that the accusation was "false" and Romani women "exaggerate in all cases". A hospital in Vitkovice (Ostrava) recently apologized to a Romani woman, who was sterilized after her second ceasarotomy, but a request for a compensation of 1 million Czech crowns was rejected by the court.
According to a recent opinion poll, 68% Czechs have less or higher antipathy towards Roma and 82% Czechs refuse any form of a "special care of Roma rights". According to a 2010 survey, 83% of Czechs consider Roma asocial and 45% of Czechs would like to expel them out of the Czech Republic.[1]This attitude remains virtually unchanged. Police statistics from the early 90's show that the crime rate of the Romani population in Czechoslovakia was highly disproportional, especially among burglaries. According to Říčan (1998), Roma make up more than 60% of Czech prisoners and about 50% habitual offenders.
Many Roma fled after the independence of the Czech Republic claiming that they felt unsecure due to a surge in right wing activity. Countries such as Ireland, the UK, Norway and Sweden took in large numbers, but most Roma returned home after a few years. Their immigration to Great Britain suddenly dropped, after financial support for refugees started to be paid out in the forms of food-tickets in summer 2000 (due to the so-called "Immigration and Asylum Act 1999"). One year later, British customs officers began to check the ethnicity of Czech passengers at the Prague airport and routinely rejected those of Romani origin. Due to the continuing wave of unsubstantied requests for asylum, Canada set up a visa regime for Czech citizens in October 1997.
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