UN Special Rapporteur for Poverty and Human Rights

01 Sep 2018

Gypsies, Roma and Irish Travellers are three distinct ethnic groups as recognised by UK law. Despite this, much of the population do not accept or realise that Gypsies and Irish Travellers are ethnic groups. In 2017, the Traveller Movement conducted a Yougov survey which showed that only a third – 34% – of the population of Great Britain considered Gypsies and Irish Travellers to be ethnic groups. Therefore, it is difficult to tackle this discrimination when a significant minority of people do not believe that these are ethnic group; people seem to feel instead that being a Gypsy or an Irish Traveller is a ‘choice’, which in turn leads to the sentiment that disadvantages faced by Gypsies or Irish Travellers are brought on purely by bad ‘choices’.