Serbia cannot be immunized without roma

OPRE ROMA SERBIA

URGENT!!! Press release

SERBIA CANNOT BE IMMUNIZED WITHOUT ROMA!

The Opre Roma Serbia movement on 08.02.2021. at 6 pm organized a dialogue with the Minister of State Administration and Local municipality and Predrag Kon on the question "Can Serbia be immunized without Roma!" This issue is most important because of the catastrophic situation in which the Roma community has lived for decades and because of which it has a higher level of risk under the threat of Covid virus for three key reasons:

       1. Worse health condition, which is evidenced by the 10-15-year shorter life expectancy of Roma compared to other citizens of Serbia.

       2. Poorer access to health services and insurance, due to lack of documents, discrimination by medical staff, and poverty.

       3. Worse living conditions in Roma settlements, lack of water, sewerage as well as a large number of people in a small area in settlements and houses.

In addition to great fear, doubts, and misinformation, the dialogue showed that decades of disregard for the situation in which Roma live has led to great disappointment, which is reflected in inadequate prevention and immunization measures. In this regard, this event showed that Serbia cannot be immunized without Roma, because victory over the virus requires full immunization of everyone. However, greater trust among Roma for immunization requires a substantial change in the state's attitude towards the Roma community and measures that have led to a much more difficult situation in which the average Roma family lives compared to the average Serbian family.

Ministery Obradović recognized the difficult position and took a firm position that this situation must change and suggested some of the first steps in changing the state's attitude towards the Roma.

Healthy Roma, Healthy Serbia!!!