Event shows positive role of community work in addressing Roma rights
Pavee Point Traveller and Roma Centre held a national event to celebrate community work with Roma in Ireland, including the organisation’s work with Ukrainian Roma refugees.
The event, which took place the week of International Roma Day, April 8th, was opened by Minister for Equality Norma Foley.
“Today is about celebrating positive achievements in our Roma community while continuing to push for a better future," said Gabi Muntean, Roma community worker, Pavee Point.
“Community development is a responsive and collective tool. It sees projects build trust with Roma in Ireland who are often marginalised, and experience racism, discrimination, poverty and human rights violations.”
“Projects identify issues impacting the Roma community and feed these back to services, policy makers, the Government and others to create positive change and achieve social justice.” Ms Muntean continued.
Opening the event, Minister Foley said: “Roma are the largest ethnic minority in Europe, with a rich history and culture. This week, we celebrate the culture and heritage of the Roma community living across Ireland. The National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy II 2024 – 2028 aims to address the disadvantage, discrimination and inequalities faced by Travellers and Roma across a wide range of indicators, including in terms of health, education, employment and accommodation.”
Throughout the event, attendees heard from Roma workers who reflected on achievements and what is further needed to promote Roma rights in the future. Pavee Point launched a special report on its work with Ukrainian Roma refugees, in collaboration with Donegal Travellers Project.
“In 2022, we saw a need for additional support for Ukrainian Roma families arriving in Ireland fleeing war. We established a phoneline, through which we've supported almost 850 people directly. We also continued our direct policy, advocacy and lobbying work to improve the situation,” said Rudolf Simonic, Roma community development worker, Pavee Point.
Some of the main issues for Ukrainian Roma Pavee Point identified were racism and discrimination, and difficulty accessing the supports they need under the Temporary Protection Directive.
“Similar to Roma throughout Europe, some Ukrainian Roma struggle with language and literacy, and access to documentation, so have difficulty filling out necessary paperwork to access the temporary protection and support that they are legally entitled to,” continued Mr Simonic.
Pavee Point worked closely with the Department of Justice, as well as the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC), to address barriers to accessing Temporary Protection, and the situation has improved since 2022. 2025 has seen the need to support Roma through new regulatory changes impacting Ukrainian refugees such as the renewal process for Temporary Protection.
Pavee Point has worked closely with the relevant Government Departments, agencies and other civil society actors, to ensure that the specific needs of Ukrainian Roma are considered at national and local levels resulting in real, positive outcomes.
“Today showcases the important work that’s being undertaken on the ground by Roma workers in partnership with a range of Government and State agencies,” said Lynsey Kavanagh, co-director, Pavee Point. “It’s really important that this is built on with further investment in community development infrastructure. This is vital to address the rights of Roma in Ireland.”
