From the time they entered Europe from India a thousand years ago, the Roma were targets of discrimination. Countries passed laws to suppress their culture and keep them out of the mainstream -- and sometimes went much further. Roma were enslaved in Hungary and Romania in the 15th century and targeted for extermination by Nazi Germany 500 years later. Opinion: Europe's Roma discrimination shame Estimates of Romani deaths in the Holocaust range from 25% to 70% of the Roma population in Europe. Many Roma remain on the fringes of mainstream European society -- a fact underscored in the current case of a Romani couple accused of child abduction in Greece. The fair-skinned child caught the eyes of authorities when they visited a Roma community. The couple's attorney says they adopted the child from the biological mother but didn't go through a legal process.
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EU agency: 90% of Roma live below poverty line
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Roma are Europe's largest minority
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Roma arrived from India about 1,000 years ago, usually unwelcome in Europe
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School segregation, forced evictions are among issues
Some advocates say many @placeholder wrongly assume all Roma still want to be nomads -- and use that belief to justify authorities' failure to provide housing when they evict Roma from camps.
Amnesty International says @placeholder governments continue to actively discriminate against the Roma.