UNICEF Says Balkan Roma Shunned, Illiterate, Hungry

A Roma flower-seller in Belgrade (file photo) (epa)

May 17, 2007 -- Roma are the largest minority group across the Balkans, but most of them spend their life in poverty, illiterate, underfed, and marginalized by society, a study by the UN children's agency, UNICEF, says.

The study shows most Roma live under the poverty line: 78 percent of Roma in Albania, and 66 percent in Romania, live on less that $4.30 a day.

Data from the region's countries put the Roma, or Gypsy, population at some 3.7 million people.

The World Bank says it is over 15 million in reality.

(Reuters)