Toronto / Canada (RNC Agency) 29.08.1997

Hopes of better life in Canada have been shattered for hundreds of penniless Czech Roma who are discovering that the promised land is really a strip of dingy motels on Toronto’s working-class east side. The Roma as they prefer to be called, began arriving in small groups at Canada airports earlier this month, many of them after selling all their possessions for the price of a one-way air ticket out of the Czech Rep.. All have claimed refugee status upon arrival in Canada.

Roma, who make up large minorities in Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Czech Rep., are regularly accused of being responsible for much of the crime in these countries and have often been targeted in racially motivated attacks.

‘’ We, the Roma of Opava, face great discrimination in the Czech Rep.. There are no jobs for us. Our children are ignored in the schools. We can not go to dance clubs, the movies or the beach. We are dead people with no culture there, ‘’ a group of Roma said in a statement, outside their temporary lodgings -- a homeless shelter in Scarborough, an east Toronto suburb. The trigger for their sudden exodus was a Czech television documentary aired this month, which painted a rosy picture of life in Canada and suggested that the Canadian government offered a special program to give Roma free housing, cash and help in finding jobs. No such program exists.

‘No Work Here, No Money’

‘’ Immigration only give me paper and tell to me,’ Do what you want,’’’ said a 20-year-old Roma recently off the plane. ‘’ No work here, no money. We are in horrible situation. I very scared, ‘’ said the man, who asked not to be identified or photographed. Few of the Roma speak any English.

Fear turned to panic this week when a group of Canadian neo-Nazis harassed the Roma outside a Scarborough motel. The protesters, mostly young skinheads, shouted, ‘’ Out, Gypsies, Out!’’ and carried placards that read ‘’ Canadian Is Not A Trash Can’’ and ‘’ Honk If You Hate Gypsies.’’

Canadian officials, meanwhile, are busy trying to dispel the image of Canada as a haven for downtrodden Roma. ‘’ The documentary that aired over there obviously painted a picture about the easiness of getting refugee status in Canada that was far from the truth,’’ said Rene Mercier, spokesman for Department of Citizenship and Immigration.

‘’ From what our immigration officers tell me, these people are coming here expecting to have check upon landing, a house and, few weeks later, a job. That is not reality.’’

Canada has accepted nearly 200 refugee claims from Roma in the past three weeks but the welcome is waning. At least 30 Roma who recently arrived from the Czech Rep. were stopped at Toronto airport and sent home. ‘’ It’s not that we don’t want these people if they are really refugees, but they have to prove it and if they can’t prove it they will be sent back,’’ Marcier said. He said Canadian officials had met with leaders of the Roma community and the Czech media to set the record straight on Canada’s refugee policy.

Underhanded Attempt To Bar Roma?

A Toronto lawyer who represents 50 Roma families seeking refugee status in Canada charged that Canadian officials have also engaged in a underhanded attempt, marked by criminal record checks and deportations, t keep Roma out of Canada.

Refugee claims have ground to a halt to allow Canadian officials time to confer with Czech authorities because of a mistaken suspicion that up to half the incoming Roma have criminal records, lawyer George Kubes said. Claimants with serious criminal convic tions can be deported if this is know before a refugee hearing is held.

‘’ This is a campaign orchestrated by the Czech consulate in Ottawa to falsely show my clients to be criminals and to make it look as if me and other lawyers are responsible for the exodus, ‘’ Kubes charged.

‘’ The Embassy of the Czech Rep. in Canada does not provide the immigration office of Canada with information about criminal records of Czech citizens,’’ Nora Jurkovic, the embassy press attache, said.

Kubes also accused Canada of engaging in a pattern of intimidation and disinformation.

‘’ Some of my clients are being spread against the wall and searched roughly as they come off the plane,’’ he said. ‘’ Others have been told by immigration officers at the airport that isn’t very easy on the streets of Toronto without shelter, that they wo n’t get shelter and that they should turn back.’’