Good job to the Sofia echo moderators on removing racist/bigoted comments in this thread. Integrated schools are the only answer!

Valeri, I see you are a bigot and here you are always attacking Serbs for problems in Kosovo.
Everything is fine when it isn't happening in your country, but as soon as it touches your country your true colours come out.

Funny thing is that I completely accept Roma because they don't cause any trouble. They try to get along and never demand anything from their host country, unlike Albanians and here you are pretending you are more civilized and sophisticated than the Serbs while not wanting your kids to be in the same [...]

Read the full comment classroom as the Roma kids.
Roma kids are there to learn and become useful to the society. They are not a threat to you or your kids. How can you discriminate against children?
If you and the rest of your civilized Bulgaria is going to discriminate against children you should keep your mouth shut about the way things are done in other countries.
Grow a heart and then talk.

It is called a magnet school. Give some incentive to Bulgarian parents, so that it a win win for all. Take the best teacher in town, invest in the best technology and add the roma kids. The reaction will be much different.

One thing is certain. Bulgarians need to understand that there is no path without integration and start working on integration NOW, in each family, school and playground.

"The Roma families themselves have no concerns about their children being together with their Bulgarian peers, but apparently the feeling was not mutual."

Why would they?
They do their parental duty the way they see them, like giving their children exact instructions how to beat up BG children, take their lunch money and bring it to them.

I used to work in a high tech US company which happened to be in the middle of a black area - almost all of my co-workers sent their kids to private schools, [...]

Read the full comment driving them there sometimes 50 kilometers one way in the morning before work, and paying about $20K a year and up. It was a price worth paying as far as they were concern. It's natural - you want the best for your children, and surely those Pazardjik parents don't have the private school option.

I too want integration and education of all Roma, because I too understand that without it BG has no future, but my kids matter more, to me, so please, appreciate the complexity of the situation and reframe from blunt attacks on Bulgaria in general, because it only betrays your own prejudice.

As you see, France, a core EU country, also isn't that sophisticated in their approach. Not a flat black&white issue...

hey, its bulgaria what do you expect.

This comment has been removed by the moderator because it contained foul, abusive or discriminating language

This comment has been removed by the moderator because it contained foul, abusive or discriminating language

David M have you room for them if so invite them to your place.

Let them come to the UK we can integrate the Roma into our society

@kirov
I agree - but the difficult question is whether laws should direct people to stop segregationing or information. I'm on the last boat :)

Too many of these comments are way off topic, meaning some people have a different agenda of their own along the the most common racist ones, which I have begged the editors to delete.

Education is the key to integration. Integration can easily start in first grade. These parents have made a great mistake. Stop segregation now.

all'integrazione SI, SI allo studio in scuole Pubbliche SI Alla Alla vita culturale SI SI Alla Dignità da Roma Italia

jgvandepol -
Blocking Bulgarians from freedom of working in any EU country will end in 2012 so please have a little more patience. I know how difficult this is for some, I am married to a Bulgarian who has been with me in the UK since 2003, and we could not even get permission for her eldest son who was 21 by the time they joined the EU to come and live with us permanently. If he had come from a country outside the EU then he would have had a much better chance to stay with us, [...]

Read the full comment such are the ridiculous rules the UK have set for Bulgaria.
Fortunately he now has a good job in Bulgaria and a wife and child, so it is myself and his mother who cannot wait to move back to Bulgaria permanently.
Not all Roma are bad people, we have employed some to do work on a recent property we have bought there and they are hard workers.But I have also been on the receiving end of street pick pocketing so I am very wary when around them.

Perhaps, rather than allowing the parents to send the children to another school, we should send the children to other homes so they don't have to be raised by such bigoted idiots.

@rezil
I agree on that particular case.. and surely also in other cases. You know, if you judge a country in total on single cases, every country in the world would be crap. I, in person, knew a 6 year old boy from c. Markovo. He was killed last year just before Christmas outside his kindergarden by a car speeding way too much. The guy driving the car was released without conviction at all. If I should judge Bulgaria from this case, this would surely be the worst country in the world.. but I'm not! Even though it [...]

Read the full comment breaks my heart to think about the small boy.. I know - and hope - deep inside, this is not common case. Don't judge one country from small examples. Don't judge Romas from the bad examples. Please.

If BG to move in to 21st century, this will send them back. I have been in BG twice, have met good people and old friends. Here in India governmet passed the law to create mandatory 25% addmission of poor class. The rich family revolted just like in BG,claiming of negative influence from children of the poor families. I want to to know God created children in his own image, parents gave the life, how is first grade child can create negative fears on othe children. It is the parents fault of blunt descrimination, unjust, deny the right of no [...]

Read the full comment fault of the children. Don't insult God who created all to be equal and have same opportunity. I am US citizen and in such a big diversified country NO CHILD IS LEFT BEHIND when it comes to Education. God Bless.

This comment has been removed by the moderator because it contained foul, abusive or discriminating language

Hello I am from Holland.
And I must say I understand the problem you – and other countries – have with Romas. But I can not understand that nobody I read understands the trap. The price Bulgaria and Romania will pay is being out of Schengen for a long time. This means that my fiancé from Sliven Bulgaria will not be able to find normal work here. I know the solution for that of course. Get married. I would love to. But you all wanting to work outside Bulgaria will find the problems. After the Greek disaster (financially) [...]

Read the full comment many countries will use the opportunity to block Bulgaria. It would be such a pity.

In the Kemalist 1923 Turkish legal code if a defendant offers to marry a unmarried woman after raping her all leagl action is dropped...is that not shocking?

@Rezil
"appalling"? Don't agree, dude :)

Yes Turkey is appalling -but not sharia

@Rezil
Sorry about that - just wanted to point out, that what people do in other parts of the world is not always the right way :)

There is NO shria law anywhere in Turkey they have a Kemalist Turkey Cumhuryiet legal code based on the Napoleonic code...

This comment has been removed by the moderator because it contained foul, abusive or discriminating language

Dudek yes I agree with part of what you say and it is wrong to segregate children,after all its the children that have no idea of race or creed and then they can be educated together I hope it can work.

@xx
So, you're saying, that what they do in other countries, we should do in Bulgaria as well? Do you like the Sharia Law? <irony>I mean, in Southern Turkey they use that pretty much, so why shouldn't we in Bulgaria?</irony>

Further, please continue calling me a Turk - not that I actually do care. But, sorry, I know a part of Bulgaria still have hard times with Turks because of the past.. and yay, let's live in the past.

If you we're a little more clever in argumenting, you would [...]

Read the full comment check my last-name and the find our, that some part of my grand-grand-parent could be from Poland.

This comment has been removed by the moderator because it contained off-topic content

@Cosmos
You're right.. but the first wrong move in my opinion is NOT the 12 Romas attending first grade. It's the s***** Bulgarian parents moving their kids to another school abviously because of the Romas. This is actually like saying "even though you TRY to integrate and become wiser, we don't want you to", isn't it?

Dudek yes I hope that the children in that school stay and better there lives, but if there parents move on then what will happen we are back to the start of this conversation.

Lets hope I am wrong.

@Bond
The hen or the egg? Would you yourself love to even try to socialize and integrate into a society that hate a part of their own people?

This comment has been removed by the moderator because it contained foul, abusive or discriminating language

@v
In my world there are distances between "preaching" and letting out an opinion. True, in Denmark there are problems too.. but these are mostly caused because some stupid part of Danes think the NEED to express themselves about different religions in a non-respective way.

@Cosmos
I actually think I DO understand your feelings.. but, to be honest, if the 12 Romas didn't want to go to the school mentioned in the article, then what kind of police forced them? Sure, maybe many of the Romas don't want to.. but the ones, [...]

Read the full comment that really want it - why deny them? In my way you're actually generalising way above when saying all Romas beg.. and steal from only hardworking Bulgarians. Do you honestly believe, that all Bulgarians are like that?

@zz
So Bulgarians, like you (?), would like the possibility to live in a society with true and "pure" Bulgarians only? Is that what you're saying? Do I NEED to visualize the parallel to WW2?

@Cosmos
In my opinion, the biggest mistake in the Bulgarian society today is, that parents let the grandparents raise the kids, because the parent love to feel free. In that way the pure kids are raised in a way, that was appropiate 50 years ago. That being said, I still live here and love life here :) [...]

Read the full comment

Dudek I do not have an attitude I only know that for generations a lot of help and support have been given to the roma,I will say again that they do not want help they just want to be left alone to set up shanty towns and live there lives without interference.Then they can beg and steal off the hardworking citizens of Bulgaria.

hey Dudek from Denmark...you come to Bulgaria preach 'tolerance' but look at your country native Danish people getting genocided by 3rd world fanatics..that is yous multi culti utopia that is not wanted in Bulgaria

I would be very pleased to be proven wrong,but when the girls reach 13 yrs old the parents will expect them to be pregnant,the parents can then get hand outs from the goverment,the boys will be stealing and begging and it goes round and round.

You cannot educ

This comment has been removed by the moderator because it contained off-topic content

@Cosmos
Because of people like you with that kind of attitude I am pretty much afraid, that they have a long way to education.

How far is Bulgaria behind in civilization?

This comment has been removed by the moderator because it contained foul, abusive or discriminating language

The sad part is neither the Bulgarians treating the Romas badly.. nor the opposite. No, the sad part is, that there exists terms like "us" and "them".

Sure thing, there ARE Romas stealing and cheating.. but this goes for the Bulgarians as well.

I'm from Denmark living in Bulgaria on year 3. My oldest son just started in first class in a small village. This first class includes 2 Romas, and I told my son: You're so lucky - now you have the chance of getting to know two different kind of [...]

Read the full comment people.

The only way to rid your country of Roma camps is to educate the children. It will take a generation or two, but educated kids - given reasonable equality of opportunity of course - will not wish to live in dirty encampments.

Having said all that, I do have sympathy with the view that hectoring, lecturing multikulti liberals rarely have to live with or near the problems they inflict on others.

Mikael from Sweden - your country is hardly top of the food chain itself, with its shameful history of Nazi collaboration [...]

Read the full comment in WW2, antisemitism and eugenics.

It is in a position to preach to no-one.

Bring the Roma to the UK...we can integrate them into normal society away from the racist Bulagarians

ZZ..are they Gadjo, or are you??

what about Roma hatred and racism towards Bulgarians? in roma language they call Bulgarians 'Gadjo' meaning sub human, exact language used by HItler..

So how do you recon that this should
come about then deare Cokoлoь?Regrettfully
there is a lot of hatred toward minorities all over Europe now,but I find the attitude many Bulgarians show towards their Roma minorities especially sad and frightening.

I have a feeling that romas can never do right. If they don't put kids to school people complain. If they put them to school people complain again. Only way to chance things is education. It's a long way but not impossible. Our roma people were same before too, but nowadays totally opposite to yours. They are not totally same like mayority but becoming more and more part of society.

why ruin your child's chance at an education? Why not elite Sofia liberals put their kids in a class with gypsies? how many gypsies at elite school in Sofia...zero exactly

Give schools with high numbers of Roma students extra resources and see how quickly the parents overcome their racism. Sadly you have to feed off people's more basic instincts of selfishness. With parents like these, you have to worry for the future of this country.

Well said, Clancy and Mikael...children are supposed to be our future and that's what I believe. Education is a great leveller..it can't see the colour or your skin, your religious beliefs or your ethnic background. What right do a few bleating bigots have to destroy the aspirations of children? Intergration is a two-way street until someone puts up a stop sign.

We in Sweden do not think Bulgaria is one of the top of the food chain... You should show some respect for your own citizens.

if there is always segregation between races how can we hope for peace and understanding in this world. It has to start with children learning together and accepting each other's race and nationality. Education is the way forward to combat ignorance in racism.

This comment has been removed by the moderator because it contained foul, abusive or discriminating language