The origins

The Romani people are descended from groups who left the Indian sub-continent towards the end of the first millenium C.E.

Romani groups were noted in the European part of the Byzantine Empire by the eleventh century and probably entered Spain from North Africa at around the same time. Areas located in what is today southern Greece were noted as centres of Romani settlement in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and it is thought that Roma lived throughout the Balkans by that time.

Following a period of relative tolerance in the late Middle Ages, with the birth of the modern States and the rising of nationalism, Roma were subjected to the

In the mid-18th century, the first in a series of efforts was undertaken attempting to compel Roma to conform to the norms of the wider society.

In the subsequent two centuries, Roma have frequently been removed from their families by force and placed with non-Romani families, or placed in institutions.

Roma were targeted for race-based persecution during the Hitler regime in Germany and in other countries; in some casas with German prompting, in other without. The Romani Holocaust is referred to by some as the "Porraimos".

In the post-war period in Central and Eastern Europe, efforts to forcibly settle Roma, and to end what were seen as anti-social traits, were redoubled. Some governments undertook policies of coercive sterilisation of Romani women, and schooling in many countries became segregated.

The history in Western Europe appears remarkably similar to that in Central and Eastern Europe. In Norway, Sweden and Switzerland, for example, concerted efforts were undertaken to end the communal existence of Roma through measures including forced sterilisation of both men and women, as well as through the systemic removal of Romani children from families and their placement in state care.