The Roma people are the most discriminated in Europe and Sweden is no exception, the Council of Europe commissioner for human rights argued on Saturday.
Commissioner Thomas Hammarberg, and archbishop Ander Wejryd argue in a debate article in the Dagens Nyheter daily on Saturday that Sweden's deportation of 50 Roma EU citizens is evidence that the country is complicit in the ongoing discrimination of the ethnic group.
The deportations have been defended by the migration minister Tobias Billström who has argued that the EU rules on the free movement of labour are not intended to encourage begging.
The deportations have been carried out despite the uncertain legal framework, Hammarberg and Wejryd argued.
"They are identified as a danger to society by politicians who seek to win political points on demands of a tough line against this already vulnerable group. They are subjected to arrest and collective deportations."
Hammarberg and Wejryd wrote that the growing "anti-Romaism" has to be fought across the whole European continent. They maintain that the legal rights of the Roma has to be taken seriously and that their citizens' rights within the EU have to be given the same importance as other EU citizens.
The Local Sweden
