UNICEF Says Balkan Roma Shunned, Illiterate, Hungry

A Roma flower-seller in Belgrade (file photo) (epa) May 17, 2007 -- Roma are the largest minority group across the Balkans, but most of them spend their life in poverty, illiterate, underfed, and marginalized by society, a study by the UN children's agency, UNICEF, says.

The study shows most Roma live under the poverty line: 78 percent of Roma in Albania, and 66 percent in Romania, live on less that $4.30 a day.


Data from the region's countries put the Roma, or Gypsy, population at some 3.7 million people.


The World Bank says it is over 15 million in reality.


(Reuters)

RFE/RL Balkan Report

RFE/RL Balkan Report


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