This report was published in cooperation with the Equal Opportunities Initiative in Bulgaria and builds upon decades of ERRC research, legal work, and activism aimed at ending the discrimination of Romani families in the state care systems of Europe. The research exposes the mechanisms by which Roma are disproportionately placed in state care because of the racialized poverty of their families, embedded racial biases in the care sector, and multiple failures to provide alternatives to family removals and segregated institutions in Bulgaria.
In 2016 the Equal Opportunities Initiative Association (EOIA) implemented a field research concerning the housing situation of Roma in Bulgaria. Disturbing facts have been identified, which shows that Roma are disproportionately subjected to forced eviction and demolitions of only homes without securing any alternatives even for children and vulnerable members of affected families. The research has been done with the financial support of the Open Society European Policy Institute. A detailed report with the results of the research is to be published soon. The OSEPI and EOIA addressed The European Commission with a memorandum containing the results from the research urging for initiation of infringement procedure on the matter.