Croatia News - CroatiaPress.com

Zagreb, April 7 (CP) – Prior to marking the International Roma Day on April 8, a government representative stated that Croatia had increased the finances meant for Roma between 2005 and 2008 by 630 percent.

It was stated that the number of Roma children attending pre-school has doubled during the past three years, while at the same time number of Roma children attending primary school had tripled.

As for employment, some 8,000 Roma had been engaged in information programs and some 50 in self-employment projects.

The government has also donated certain land plots across the eastern and central parts of the country for Roma settlements to be built with money for the PHARE 2005 program being used to finance the efforts.

A representative of the Croatian Roma, Kasum Cana has said that over the past years the position of the Roma in Croatia had improved saying that about 30,000 were living in Croatia.

The Roma MP in Croatian parliament Nazif Memedi said he was pleased with progress made in education, housing and partly in the employment of Roma.