WEBVTT

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Why are Roma children
overrepresented

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in the residential care system?

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This is a new phenomenon,
this Roma over representation.

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And it very much relates to the
nature of institutional care

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in Bulgaria.

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It started as a
political agenda.

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Institutionalisation was foreign
to the Bulgarian culture,

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and it started with the
socialist regime and in 1945.

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And it was not aimed at
assimilating Roma or addressing

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poverty, or any of these things.

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It was ideology-based.

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It was consistent with
the communist ideology,

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according to which,
the state was

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to become a parent, to force
the ideology of communism,

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through the family system,
through the children.

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So that's how the institutional
system was built in Bulgaria,

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and it is very specific
political effort

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to separate children
from parents.

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This has to be
understood, because now it

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influences the development
of the community services,

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because the attitudes
remain the same.

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So in the beginning,
the system was

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aimed at children's education.

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So it was perceived by parents
as something very good.

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Actually, Bulgarian parents
would place their children,

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affluent Bulgarian
parents, so this

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was very, very strange thing.

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After the changes, after
the communist regime

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ended in Bulgaria in
1989, institutions

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started to address poverty,
and then Roma children

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became overrepresented.

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Because the nature of
the problem changed.

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But Roma children and families
became especially vulnerable

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after the changes, because
the crisis became economic.

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The demographic crisis became
very severe in Bulgaria

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after the communist
regime ended.

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So this was the thing.

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Helsinki Watch in
Bulgaria published a study

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according to which 70% of the
institutionalised children

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were Roma.

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But now, it is very difficult
to say what is the exact number,

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but we know all the
services, community services,

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that do
deinstitutionalisation, meaning

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that they close the
institution, and they develop

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residential services
in the community,

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know that mostly these
are Roma children.

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Are Roma children being included
in the deinstitutionalisation

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programme in Bulgaria?

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All children are included
in deinstitutionalisation

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in Bulgaria.

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There is no difference.

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We have to close all
institutions until 2025.

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This is the year
when we are supposed

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to get rid of this system.

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Still, the problem with
deinstitutionalisation

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now is very much connected
to community services,

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because
deinstitutionalisation is

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a foreign agenda in Bulgaria.

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The policy of
deinstitutionalisation

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was imposed by the
European Commission.

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It was not the
Bulgarian process,

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so the attitudes of
the general population,

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and the professionals who don't
get any relevant training,

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is the same.

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Many professionals
still don't know what

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deinstitutionalisation means.

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Why do we need to
close institutions?

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So the problem now is that
because of these attitudes,

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because the attitudes
have not changed,

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we reproduce the culture
of institutionalisation

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in the de-institutionalized
services,

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so the culture is the same.

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And overrepresentation
of Roma is the same,

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because it is very easy to take
a child away from a Roma family

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and to place the child
in an institution,

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and also because
of the budgeting,

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because of the financial aspects
of deinstitutionalisation.

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Because we fund beds in
these residential services

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in the community now-- we are
not speaking any more about

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the institutional care--

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the interest of the services
are to maintain a certain number

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of placements there.

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So, of course, this is
abuse, but it happens,

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and it's happening
every day in Bulgaria

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under the frame of
child protection,

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and this is the manipulation
of the child protection system.

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Interestingly
enough, in comparison

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with Bulgarian
families, Roma families

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became very critical to
institutionalised care.

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It is very much in
the culture of Roma

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to stay very close
in the family,

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so institutionalisation is
affecting the most vulnerable

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Roma families, those
Roma families who

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are excluded for
some cultural reasons

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from their own communities.

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That's why it is
very important, when

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addressing
institutionalisation of Roma,

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to solve the problem
within the community

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by the Roma leaders, activists,
who understand desegregation

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of Roma within the
Roma, so that they

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can address institutionalisation
and separation of Roma

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families.

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Because they are excluded.

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They don't have access
to any other services.

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Police has neglected
totally Roma communities,

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and this is a fact.

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It's document, well documented.

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They don't have access to health
services or legal services.

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So there is no way that they
can signal, they can protest,

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and they're really
very vulnerable.

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And speaking about
the most vulnerable

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of the vulnerable, Roma, you can
imagine that it is very easy.

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It's very easy to
help the vulnerable.

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