A/HRC/29/24 lacking, but civil society organizations reported that very few Roma children living in camps have ever been to school, and estimate that 90 per cent of the Roma living in camps in Curitiba city are illiterate. Prejudice has also been identified as an obstacle for accessing public schools in Brazil, where Roma children are reportedly not given the chance to enrol on the pretext of a lack of space. A representative of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has emphasized that teachers’ biased attitudes towards Lyuli children in Central Asia may result in violence at school. The illiteracy rate among Iraqi Roma is very high and many Roma children there are forced to take on irregular jobs or resort to begging. In Lebanon, 68 per cent of school-aged children reportedly do not attend school because of significant obstacles such as discrimination, legal and economic barriers, leading to street labour becoming a significant trend among Dom children.33 31. Roma face significant discrimination at all stages of access to labour markets, and the rate of unemployment among Roma is often high. When they do have access to labour markets, they are often offered short-term or low-skilled employment and are subject to prejudice. In Azerbaijan, for 90 per cent of Roma families living in the Nasiminskiy and Suraxani districts of Baku and from the Yevlakh region, begging is their main livelihood. In Belarus, only 9 per cent of Roma are employed. 34 Central Asian Roma are reported to survive in conditions of poverty and deprivation, forced into begging and a semi-nomadic lifestyle. In 2004, the unemployment rate among the more than 3,500 Mugat Roma living in the Osh region of Kyrgyzstan was 90 per cent.35 In Lebanon, Dom communities often work in the informal sector or are engaged in unskilled labour, and monthly family income levels among the Dom are extremely low. 36 32. The Special Rapporteur regrets the lack of comprehensive health indicators and the scarce evidence, including information on reproductive, maternal and child health, for assessing the health situation of Roma outside Europe. Poverty, lack of identification documents and lack of transportation from remote areas to health-care facilities all impact on Roma health, which can be compounded by poor living conditions, such as living in proximity to garbage dumps or polluted rivers. Factors precluding Roma access to health care across the regions include Roma patients being refused medical treatment, having no access to emergency services, being subject to verbal abuse, or being segregated in hospital facilities.37 Furthermore, lack of access to health care may result from indirect discriminatory practices when Roma have to provide identity or residency documents in order to register and qualify for health-care benefits. 33. The Special Rapporteur also draws attention to particular groups of Roma who may be victims of multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination. While many Roma migrate for the full range of reasons that all persons chose to migrate, including to seek new opportunities, the poverty Roma experience in their countries of origin, as well as racism, discrimination and marginalization, are often important push factors. Moreover, once in a destination country, Roma migrants often experience discrimination on multiple grounds, including as Roma and as migrant non-citizens. In that regard, the Special Rapporteur expresses concern about the targeted expulsions of Roma migrants, sometimes undertaken without their free, full and informed consent, including to countries where they are likely to face discrimination. In 2010, about 8,000 Roma were reportedly expelled from France, and 33 34 35 36 37 10 ILO and others, Children living and working on the streets in Lebanon (see note 7 above), p. 64. Response from Belarus to the questionnaire. See www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/ADC_ADCM_FIDH_RussianFederation_CESCR46.pdf, p. 35. Terre des Homme, A Child Protection Assessment (see note 7 above), p. 8. See www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/115485/E94018.pdf, p. 227.

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