COVID-19 Impacts, challenges, and risks for Roma communities: An exploratory report

A unified picture of COVID-19 impacts for Roma communities is lacking - reports are sparse and evidence-based policymaking is either patchy or non-consolidated. Understanding the impact of COVID-19 for one of the most vulnerable and underrepresented groups is absent from debates on the European response to the pandemic.

• COVID-19 impacts for Roma communities are discussed sparsely in EU reports on the pandemic (e.g., European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights). However, the evidence is typically anecdotal due to the absence of wide-ranging research studies and compounded by the fact that no ethnic data is been collected about diseases or vaccination rates.

• Vaccine hesitancy in Roma communities has grabbed the headlines in most European countries. However, evidence that suggests that Roma vaccine hesitancy and anti-vax discourse was starkly different from that of the majority population is inconclusive.

• The enactment of COVID-19 mitigating measures has amplified the general perception of Roma as a threat to public health and safety. Although majority of Roma communities were suffering from the severe consequences of the virus due to very limited access to health care, disproportionate responses from government and local authorities have stimulated new discriminatory behaviours and disadvantage based on old and entrenched prejudices.

• The pre-pandemic attainment gap and access to education was widened by multiple structural barriers that prevented the participation of Roma children and young people in distance learning during the pandemic.