Dr. Sandie Morgan is joined by Christina Chalilopoulou as the two discuss the complex challenges in prevention of trafficking of Roma youth.
Christina Chalilopoulou is the co-founder and CEO of a ALYSOS Alert. She’s a graduate of London Metropolitan University and has a degree in European Studies and Ethics. Christina Chalilopoulou has also studied Leadership for Gender Equality with the British Council and served in multiple roles for Greek government entities, overseeing projects for social responsibility, human rights, and policy in social inclusion, and sustainability. She’s been Advisor to the President of the Central Union of Greek Municipalities, and a plethora of roles on behalf of education and social integration strategies for Roma people.
You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode #307: Understanding Challenges in Preventing Human Trafficking Among Roma Youth.
Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast here at Vanguard University’s Global Center for Women and Justice in Orange County, California. My name is Sandie Morgan and this is the show where we empower you to study the issues, be a voice, and make a difference in ending human trafficking. Today, our guest is from Athens, Greece. Her name is Christina Chalilopoulou and she is co-founder and CEO of a ALYSOS Alert. She’s a graduate of London Metropolitan University with a degree in European Studies and Ethics, and has also studied Leadership for Gender Equality with the British Council. Christina has served in multiple roles for Greek government entities, overseeing projects for social responsibility, human rights, and policy in social inclusion, and sustainability. She’s been Advisor to the President of the Central Union of Greek Municipalities, and a plethora of roles on behalf of education, and social integration strategies for Roma people, which are so important to our topic today. There is so much more, so Christina, welcome to the podcast.
Christina Chalilopoulou 2:05
Thank you for having me. It’s such a great honor to be invited, and thank you for giving me the opportunity to communicate all the issues that my community is facing. Thank you so very much.
I loved meeting you in person when I was in Athens in June, and I plan to be back in Athens next June and see you again in person. So we’ll get coffee.
Christina Chalilopoulou 2:36
So tell us about the Roma people. I don’t think people know very much and these are your people.
Christina Chalilopoulou 2:46
Well, you see, Roma originate from Northern India, presumably from Northwest India. But in Greece, the Roma, or as I like to make the distinction, the gypsies, they have been present in Greece since the 14th century. We are not an entirely homogeneous group, given that we consist of different and often conflict tribes. We are estimated that we are around 300,000, Greek gypsies that live in Greece.
Let me stop you and ask you a question, because I know when I lived in Greece, it was a little confusing for me in conversations. Are we talking about Roma or gypsy? Or is gypsy a synonym for Roma? Can you clarify a little?
Christina Chalilopoulou 3:52
Yes, the thing is that the term “Roma” comes from our dialect, and it means a human being. Therefore, in our language, Roma actually means people. But, you see, in Greece, because the Constitution does not recognize minorities, and the few decades now, the term “Roma” actually, it tends to mean that it’s a minority group. We distinguish ourselves and we say that we are Greek Gypsies, rather than Greek Roma, because Roma is an international term, but because other countries, and especially in Balkans, their constitution recognized minorities, therefore they recognized Roma, as a minority. Where here in Greece, we don’t recognize any minorities in our constitution, we are Greek citizens therefore we make that distinction. So, yeah.
Christina Chalilopoulou 5:05
So on top of that 300,000 population, we have to also count a significant number of newly arrived Roma, who originate mainly from Albania and countries of former Yugoslavia. So that makes around an estimation of 500,000 people who live in Greece.
Christina Chalilopoulou 5:32
How is their culture different than the host culture?
Christina Chalilopoulou 5:38
Because we are in in Greece since the 14th century, we don’t have many differences in our culture, apart from the negative thing that we still, even today, married at an early age.
Christina Chalilopoulou 6:06
Quite early, at the age of 14, sometimes 15. In extreme cases, even younger. So ALYSOS Alert is actually working on combating early marriages in my community, and we try to inform as much as we can, the community and why this actually constitutes a crime because it is illegal to get married at such an early age. Yes, it’s a fight that we give every day and to be honest, we need the support and all the help that we can get. Because here in Greece, you see, via the government policy, the state policy, it’s not always as near to us as it should, in the level that we need to be.
Okay, so let’s kind of dive into that, because it feels like that contributes to making Roma more vulnerable to exploitation and even human trafficking. I’m particularly interested in understanding the forced labor part for children. I was noticing when I was there, this year, that I still saw children on the corners that I identified as Roma, and they weren’t in school, and that bothered me. So let’s talk about what that is related to.
Christina Chalilopoulou 7:17
Well yeah, if we talk about Roma and trafficking, then we should include sexual exploitation, labor exploitation, domestic servitude, illegal adoption, and forced begging. But these are not only the types of trafficking that we have to face, we also need to see that we have the the illegal marriages, as I mentioned earlier. What makes us vulnerable is the poverty and the social exclusion that we face, which results in low educational achievements, unfortunately, high level of unemployment, and this is something that we, of course, we need to overcome. I need to mention that, in my c...
