prijava
SARAJEVO, April 8 (FENA) - Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Roma population in BiH are unfortunately still lagging behind the surrounding countries, especially the countries from the European Union. The Roma population in BiH is still facing the problem of unemployment, housing insecurity, inclusion of children in the educational process from preschool to higher education, said President of the Association 'Kali Sara - Roma Information Center' Dervo Sejdić, in an interview with FENA on the occasion of April 8, the International Roma Day.
He pointed out that the pandemic in BiH has shown how vulnerable the Roma community actually is in the health care system, because about 35-40 percent of the Roma community still does not have health insurance.
Sejdić emphasized that in the last 10-12 years, BiH has prepared strategic documents, i.e. developed action plans for solving the Roma problem.
“At the level of the state budget, it regularly allocates grant funds for the implementation of action plans. From 2009 to 2015, the amount was 3,000,000 KM, but from 2015, that amount has decreased to 2,100,000 KM, with a tendency that this year it will be even lower,” said Sejdić.
In his opinion, the political division, the disunity of the state of BiH and its institutions is very difficult for the Roma community.
He stressed that "by adopting the Law on the Protection of National Minorities, ratification of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities in Europe, BiH has an obligation to introduce other languages of national minorities into the school curriculum, depending on the number of national minorities living in a given area".
Sejdić reminded that in the past period, BiH has invested about 35,000,000 KM for the social integration of Roma.
“With the help of the international community and IPA funds, more than 1,000 housing facilities have been built and reconstructed, 7-8 percent of Roma are employed, 15-20 percent of Roma have health insurance, the number of enrollments and regular attendance and completion of primary education has increased from some 35 at 50-60 percent. But that still doesn’t mean we’ve reached the standards of the general population average. We are very far from those standards. BiH has committed itself to do so in the coming period, including the development of new action plans for the period 2021-2025 to be obliged to invest greater efforts and financial resources in solving the mentioned problems,” said Sejdić.
He added that the European Union funds are also available, which are, unfortunately, used in minimal amounts.
“There is not enough political will to apply for certain programs, given that there is a fragmentation of the system in our country, and that prevents BiH from using those funds in full capacity. I hope that these full capacities will not be an obstacle for the use of funds, for solving the problems of Roma in BiH,” said Sejdić.
(FENA) A. B.
