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Cases of discrimination in access to goods and services
15
13.
Valencia.
Access to goods and services.
Indirect discrimination.
We received a telephone call from a young
girl who informed us she witnessed wrongdoing on the part of public officials. Spanish and Romanian Roma and
immigrants in general were being turned down when they tried to register at their local town hall because they
lived in makeshift or sub-standard housing. Registration at the town hall is a prerequisite for health services,
education, housing, etc. and therefore this was causing serious hardship for many of these families.
Once verifying this information, the local FSG office together with other social organisations, organised a work-
ing group to establish a dialogue with the local government to try to solve this administrative limbo that these
people were in and help them access the services to which they were entitled.
This is a case of indirect discrimination insofar as an apparently neutral regulation has a negative impact on a cer-
tain part of the population, in this case preventing them from registering at the town hall. This, in turn, prevents
them from accessing the goods and services to which they are entitled.
14.
Badajoz.
Access to goods and services.
Direct discrimination.
A Roma family informed us that they wanted
to apply for a credit card at a shopping centre to make purchases and take advantage of discounts. After read-
ing through the documentation they saw that the credit card managing body set special fees for Roma. They
told us that the sales people who fill out the form are instructed to put Roma in the B category.
We asked to see the documents and saw that Roma indeed were put in a different category.
The family told us that they had thrown away the brochure because when they realised they were being dis-
criminated against they decided not to apply for a card. They were not interested in taking legal action against
or reporting the outlet in question. .
15.
Lugo.
Access to goods and services.
Direct discrimination.
During an initial interview for the FSG’s ACCEDER
employment Programme at the Lugo office, a Roma woman told us of the following case:
She is a regular customer at a local supermarket where some of the cashiers even know her by name. Her
mother in law was caught shoplifting there and since then she (the mother in law) is not allowed to enter
the shop.
A few days later the woman was in the supermarket and ready to check out when her mother in law came in
to ask her something. The manager immediately came over and told her (the woman not the mother in law) to
leave her groceries and get out of the shop immediately. When she asked the reason why the manager said
“because you’re all the same and cover for one another”. She responded by saying that she had nothing to do
with this incident and that if a non-Roma person was caught shoplifting other members of her family would
not be punished. The manage took her groceries from her. The woman asked for a complaint form and they
begrudgingly gave her one.
The victim said that “it’s a real shame that people talk about all of us like that”. She decided to do her future food
shopping elsewhere.
16.
Pontevedra.
Access to goods and services.
Direct discrimination.
A Roma girl told us that she went with a
group of non-Roma friends to video shop to sign up and rent a film. The Roma girl was the only one of the group
that was asked for a EUR 50 deposit to get a card.
She believed that the deposit was because she had a Roma surname and the shop clerk suspected she might
steal some of the films.
She said that she simply wanted to document her case but did not want to take any further action.