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substantial rewrite from original, unsourced, fairly prejudiced version. Please help expand!
Gypsies are a people of mixed racial origins. Large numbers are found in many European countries, where they are known for committing much petty crime such as pickpocketing and theft.
Gypsies are an ethnic group, properly known as 'Romani', who are believed to have come from [[Rajasthan]]<ref>Donald Kenrick. Historical Dictionary of the Gypsies (Romanies). Scarecrow Press</ref>. They are most noted for their nomadic culture; their population is approximately 15 million<ref>http://europeandcis.undp.org/uploads/public/File/rbec_web/vgr/chapter1.1.pdf</ref>, although, due to the above fact, this is very difficult to measure accurately.
==Persecution of Gypsies==
Gypsy people have long suffered from prejudice and discrimination; one of the first concrete examples would be the laws passed in [[Moldavia]] and [[Wallachia]] which stated that any Romani on those countries' soil would automatically become a slave.
Similar laws were passed in many other countries; in Western Europe during the 15th century [[Ottoman]] invasion, in [[Argentina]] in 1880, and in the [[USA]] in 1885<ref>http://www.geocities.com/Paris/5121/timeline.htm</ref>. Forced assimilation, and the abduction of children, was also practiced, in countries such as Norway, where 1500 Romani children were removed by the state from their parents<ref>http://www2.wcc-coe.org/ccdocuments.nsf/index/plen-4.4-en.html</ref> (under the, albeit later, [[Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court]], this amounts to an attempted [[genocide]]).
Romani also suffered a great deal under the [[Holocaust]]; approximately 1,00,000<ref>http://www.radoc.net:8088/RADOC-3-PORR.htm</ref> of them were killed during it, a sizable fraction, in a period known as the 'Porajmos'. In the [[Bohemia]] region, this [[mass murder]] was so thorough that their culture and language became extinct there.
In the present day, they are often accused of pickpocketing and theft (it was such accusations, made in 1905, that precipitated the Porajmos<ref>Alfred Dillmann. Zigeuner-Buch. Munich: Wildsche (1905)</ref>); this has led to persecution and other [[human rights]] abuses<ref>http://web.amnesty.org/wire/February2002/Europe_Roma</ref><ref>http://www.socialniprava.info/article1607.html</ref>.
Some work has been carried out, however, to encourage integration; in the [[UK]], under the [[Human Rights Act 1998]], for example, the subsidised purchase of greenfield sites is being discussed, to give Romani and other Travellers accomodation.
==References==
<references/>