Roma minority asks Albania’s aid at CoE

TIRANA, May 6 – Albania is leading Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers for the next six months and that is well exploited by the Roma community asking for assistance, to highlight their what they call as apartheid they suffer all around.
There is a significant minority of Hindus in Albania.
Hindu statesman Rajan Zed said in a statement from Nevada (USA) that the new Albanian Chairmanship should not stay apathetic and silent spectator when fellow Roma brothers/sisters were reportedly facing blatant injustice and discrimination in Europe. He urged Albanian Chairmanship and President Bamir Topi and Prime Minister Sali Berisha to show strong political will, courage, and commitment in support of Roma cause.
Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, pointed out that European Roma reportedly regularly faced social exclusion, racism, substandard education, hostility, joblessness, rampant illness, inadequate housing, lower life expectancy, unrest, living on desperate margins, stereotypes, mistrust, rights violations, discrimination, marginalization, appalling living conditions, prejudice, human rights abuse, etc.
Rajan Zed urged Albania to also urgently empower and integrate its own vulnerable Roma community, who were reportedly trapped in extreme and chronic poverty and had suffered social exclusion and economic marginalization for a long period.
About 80 percent of Roma reportedly still lived below poverty line and had been practically excluded from the economic growth of Albania.
Zed noted that Albania should do more to uplift Roma people as Roma apartheid was the biggest issue facing Europe today.