The FRA survey, pertaining to 2024, included 10 EU member states—Bulgaria, Czechia, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Romania, and Spain—and three accession countries: Albania, North Macedonia, and Serbia.
The FRA reported a decrease in discrimination levels between 2021 (the time of the previous survey) and 2024 in Greece and Serbia, while an increase was observed in Czechia, France, Ireland (among nomads), North Macedonia, and Portugal.
“Discrimination rates reached their highest levels in Ireland (for Roma and nomads), Italy, and Portugal,” states the report.
In Portugal, 422 Roma were surveyed, with 63% expressing that they felt discriminated against in the 12 months leading up to the survey, marking the highest percentage among the surveyed countries. This figure represents an increase of one percentage point from the 2021 survey and a rise of 16 percentage points from the 2016 survey.
Following Portugal are Ireland and Italy, where 60% of the Roma feel discriminated against. In Ireland, this figure jumps to 75% when nomads are surveyed.
The European agency noted that in Portugal, similar to Albania, Bulgaria, Czechia, and Serbia, Roma living in less populated Roma communities experience less discrimination due to their ethnicity than those living in neighborhoods where the entire or majority population is Roma.
According to the FRA, concerning discrimination, “there was virtually no change compared to previous surveys,” emphasizing that “on average, nearly one in three Roma/nomads surveyed (31%) felt discriminated against based on their ethnic origin.”
Portugal also ranks highest in the group with the percentage of Roma who reported experiencing at least one form of hate-motivated harassment in the 12 months prior to the survey.
Of the 422 Roma surveyed, 48% reported being victims of harassment, with similar figures in Italy (44%) and Ireland (41%). In Ireland, this figure rises to 50% when nomads are surveyed.
Another area of discrimination reported by Roma is in job seeking, with Portugal experiencing a “notably high” discrimination rate of 70%, second only to Ireland (84%). Italy follows with 66%, and Greece at 61%.
The overall average across countries indicates that “in 2024, 36% of Roma/nomads over the age of 16 said they faced discrimination as Roma/nomads in job seeking in the past 12 months.”
The FRA states this confirms “a negative trend observed in 2021” and demonstrates that “the peak in discrimination recorded in 2021 cannot be solely attributed to Covid-19.”
