Roma in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Romani people in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Muslim Roma in Bosnia (around 1900)
Total population
(50,000 (estimate))
Languages
Romani, Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian
Religion
Sunni Islam, Roman Catholicism, Orthodoxy

The Romani people in Bosnia and Herzegovina are the largest of the 17 national minority in the country, although—due to the stigma attached to the label—this is often not reflected in statistics and censuses.

According to the 1991 census, there were 8,864 Romani in Bosnia and Herzegovina or 0.2 percent of the population. Yet, the number was probably much higher (10,422 Bosnians stated that Romani was their native language).

The BiH Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees (MHRR) conducted in 2010 a process of registration, recording a total number of 17,000 Roma, deemed partial. The MHRR estimates that there are at least 25,000 to 30,000 Roma resident in BiH, although they acknowledge that up to 39 percent of Roma did not participate in the registration in some districts. According to the Ministry, around 42 percent of the Romani population in BiH is below 19 years old.

The OSCE estimates the whole Romani population in Bosnia and Herzegovina at 40,000–50,000.

A partial survey by the BiH Ombudsman through Roma associations recorded around 50,000 Roma living in Bosnia and Herzegovina, of which 35,000 in the Federation BiH, 3,000 in Republika Srpska, and 2,000–2,500 in the Brčko District—without counting the Roma population in the Sarajevo Canton. Estimates for the whole Roma population living in Bosnia and Herzegovina range between 65,000 and 70,000.

Kali Sara and other local Roma NGOs put the number of Roma in BiH at between 80,000 and 100,000.

The Romani people originate from Northern India, presumably from the northwestern Indian states Rajasthan and Punjab.

The linguistic evidence has indisputably shown that roots of Romani language lie in India: the language has grammatical characteristics of Indian languages and shares with them a big part of the basic lexicon, for example, body parts or daily routines.

More exactly, Romani shares the basic lexicon with Hindi and Punjabi. It shares many phonetic features with Marwari, while its grammar is closest to Bengali.