“THE ECONOMIC losses to Slovakia resulting from social exclusion of Roma citizens comes to 7 percent of GDP,” said Miroslav Pollák, the government proxy for Roma communities. He added the losses of not including Roma in the country’s labour market are higher than the costs of integrating them into society, the SITA newswire wrote.
“If integration were to be successful, it would mean not only economic and financial gain [for the country] but also a gain for ordinary people,” Pollák stated, as quoted by SITA.
“The social costs are affected largely by the costs related to lost production caused by lower employment of Roma and also expenses such as health insurance for the unemployed, social benefits, and ineffective financing of primary schools,” Pollák added, as quoted by SITA.
The proxy said the recently revised National Action Plan of the Decade of Integrating the Roma Population into Slovak Society, passed by the government for the years 2011 to 2015, will help to improve the situation.
