A refuge for the Roma in Berlin

By Stephen Evans BBC News, Berlin

30/06/2012 – It seems unlikely but Berlin, the very city where the genocide of the Roma (Gypsy) peoples was planned 70 years ago, has become the city where they now find refuge.

In the suburb of Neukoelln, a large complex of run-down apartments is being done up to become comfortable homes for more than 100 families from a dirt-poor village near Bucharest in Romania.

Where the Nazis planned the mass murder of Roma, modern Germans plan comfort and acceptance.

There is no doubt that Europe remains a continent where Roma still face widespread discrimination.

A Swiss magazine recently ran the headline They Come. They Steal. They Go alongside a picture of a Roma boy toting a gun (which later transpired not to be a real one).

And the human rights campaigners Amnesty International reported: “Roma are among the most deprived communities in Europe.

“They suffer massive discrimination and are denied their rights to housing, employment, health care and education. Roma communities are often subject to forced evictions, racist attacks and police ill-treatment.”

The German project aims to buck that trend.

Read more on http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18601209