SLOVAKIA would like to see a total of 860 social workers in the field attending to the needs of Roma communities by 2015 and more police officers trained to work with this minority, according to a report on measures aimed at ethnic minorities approved by the government on December 17.
Slovakia is obliged to draft such a report once every five years based on the Framework Convention on the Protection of Ethnic Minorities in Slovakia and present the outcomes of the report to the European Council, the TASR newswire wrote.
According to the report, a total of 860 (currently there are 852) such social workers and their assistants should be available for field social work in at least 250 towns across Slovakia by 2015. These are slated to help improve the poor living conditions of residents of numerous ramshackle Roma settlements throughout the country. The document also envisages the introduction of a national project in support of 120 community centres aimed at integration, protection and development of marginalised communities, mainly those with Roma.
Another project envisaged in the document follows the already-existing scheme aimed at social inclusion of Roma communities and entails so-called police specialists trained to work with Roma citizens. According to the report, there were 231 such police officers in 2013 stationed at all Police Corps regional directorates. The police plan to add 56 new officers in the near future, TASR wrote.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
