Survey: Nearly Half of Slovaks Uncomfortable Sitting Next to Roma Passenger

Bratislava, March 15 (TASR) - Nearly half of Slovaks (46 percent) feel uncomfortable sitting next to a Roma fellow passenger during rail or bus travel, according to a survey conducted by the Focus agency for the Office of the Government Proxy for the Roma Communities (USVRK). "The most-readily accepted [Roma] concerned relationships among colleagues, although even in this area up to 30 percent of respondents would be bothered having a Roma as a colleague. A Roma in position of supervisor or superior would be problematic for 43 percent of the respondents. Conversely, 69 percent of the respondents don't see relationships with Roma at the workplace as an obstacle and 53 percent wouldn't be bothered by Roma managers," stated USVRK head Miriam Ziakova. Ziakova also pointed out that 34 percent of respondents wouldn't want their children to attend the same class as Roma children, and 46 percent wouldn't like their children to be friends with Roma children. At the same time, she noted that 40 percent of the respondents stated that they would be bothered by providing health care to Roma, although the majority opinion is that this wouldn't be an obstacle (57 percent). "I would be glad if we, as a society, tried to eliminate prejudices through education and open dialogue," added Government Proxy for Roma Communities Alexander Dasko. The public opinion survey was conducted in December of last year on a representative sample of 1,022 respondents from Slovakia. lin/df