Numerous Romanian Roma ethnics apply for asylum in California

Numerous Romanian Roma ethnics apply for asylum in California, arguing they are persecuted in Romania and in other European Union countries, US officials and organisations for defending minorities’ rights say, Mediafax informs, quoting Bloomberg.

Viorel Romanescu last year fled his Romanian village. He sold his pig and horse, and bought a plane ticket to Mexico. He walked across the border from Tijuana, surrendered to U.S. border agents and applied for asylum. “I decided to leave because I had problems surviving,” Romanescu, 52, said through an interpreter at a church in Riverside, California, pointing to injuries on his scalp and upper lip that he said were inflicted by police. “We could not bear the way we were looked down on.”

According to Bloomberg, in 2016 almost 1,800 Romanians have been apprehended at the southern U.S. border, up from fewer than 400 in all of last year and just a few dozen in 2008, according to government statistics. They are propelled by an anti-immigrant wave sweeping Europe and pushing the Roma across the Atlantic Ocean.

The Roma claim they are facing less-tolerant governments as more than 1 million migrants and refugees from Syria and other countries overwhelm the region.

“Every one of them claims to be Roma,” said Daniel Parks, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent in the San Diego region. “They claim they are part of that class that is persecuted by the government of Romania.”

Since Romania and Bulgaria joined the European Union in 2007, Roma moving west to access labour markets have been met with mounting resistance. In Sweden, politicians are debating whether to ban begging, a tactic critics say targets Roma. In France, police have demolished Roma camps outside Paris, the quoted agency informs.

Now, the Roma are taking their chances in the U.S. Many are ending up in suburban Los Angeles. Some find housing in common apartments, while others simply pitch tents in a public park until they can secure a roof over their heads. They sometimes find work as night-time janitors or in restaurants, while others resort to begging on the street or receiving assistance from one of two Roma churches in the area, Mediafax informs, quoting Bloomberg.