When three years ago the former president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, decided to expel a few thousands of European Union citizens of Roma origin from the French territory (for a small financial compensation), the EU Commission itself intervened and most of the media did not hide their outrage. French public opinion, however, was divided – for some, the Roma with their nomadic lifestyle, darker carnation and strange language, taking advantage of the state’s aid, were perceived as unwanted strangers, not adapted to the French social landscape. But what happened in France was just another confirmation of the shameful fact that most of the estimated 10-12 million Roma in Europe face marginalization, prejudice, xenophobia and discrimination in their everyday lives. The most worrisome fact is that 500 years of disgraceful treatment in Europe of Roma, since their arrival following the migration from India, has not ended with the emergence of the European human rights protection system. The methods of oppression varied in the past between enslavement, enforced assimilation, expulsion, internment and mass killings, whilst today they consist mostly of various forms of discrimination, homelessness, lack of health and social care, no job opportunities, forced evictions, discriminatory migration policies as well as hate speech and hate crimes against Roma. Slow progress in remedying these human rights violations is often being attributed to the insufficient involvement in improving the situation of Roma children, who are unable to succeed because of the hereditary disadvantages. As a result, shocking cases of abuse, humiliation and discrimination of Roma children are reported, leading to international protests but at the same time remaining unsolved as structural problems. After the sadistic behavior of Slovak police toward a group of Roma children became publicly known (arrested Roma children had been forced to strip and slap one another violently in the face in the police station), the responsible policemen were suspended, but alarming questions remained unanswered: was this event unique or have similar violations taken place before? Did the policemen even fear disciplinary repercussions? Is there a serious gap in the training or instruction of the police and, therefore, the responsibility for these actions lies higher up? The truth is that the general hostile, humiliating and disrespectful attitude of European societies towards the Roma people allows for shocking situations in which public hospitals in Slovakia do not hesitate to conduct forced sterilisation of the Roma women with the aim of decreasing their fertility, on the basis of an alleged cultural tendency of the Roma to have too many children. Also hate speech and hate crimes against the Roma people, especially those coming from the Southeast Europe, have become disturbingly widespread in the recent years. “Gypsy pest”, “thieves”, “dirt” – these are common expressions directed to Roma by “ordinary citizens” in much too many European states. Observing the rallies of masked hooligans „cleansing” the neighborhoods of the Roma people in Hungary, it is difficult not to think of the pre-war „cleansing” from the Jewish population. Roma people are also being brutally exploited as victims of trafficking and forced into stealing, begging, and prostitution in foreign countries – mostly old European democracies like Germany and France. This negative phenomenon remains to be one of the most alarming manifestations of violations of their rights. The traffickers successfully cross the borders with Roma (mostly women and children), as they usually have easy access to legal documents, etc. The nature of the exclusion here is the lack of state protection offered to the Roma victims of trafficking (including police and border control agencies), insufficient support for the Roma families who are very often confronted with the criminal structures active within Roma communities, small number of crisis intervention centers offering these counselling, weak cooperation on the international level on the issue of deportation of Roma detained because of criminal activities they were forced to take part in. The lack of proper and in many cases any education, overall disparities in healthcare access and housing between Roma and non-Roma as well as forced criminality appear to be among the most serious obstacles in lining up Roma minority chances for their better future. However, the hostile attitude of many European societies is to be regarded as equally important: as long as the poll results commissioned by the EU Fundamental Rights Agency will demonstrate that the level of hate and exclusion concerning Roma outweigh any other minority group, it means that Roma lack the most significant protectors – their neighbors. Any European state with the rule of law and commitment to human rights cannot ignore this problem and it is its duty to monitor, evaluate and strengthen the protection of all minorities, in particular those suffering most serious harm. The initiatives taken by now on the legal, political and social ground have not brought the substantial improvement of the situation of Roma. Thus, it is necessary to adopt a regular, result-oriented strategic plans against their exclusion, in particular aimed at cutting the education, health and social status gap between Roma and the rest of the population. Also the international community is obliged to strengthen diplomatic efforts to encourage European states authorities to live up to their international obligations of counteracting exclusion and discrimination against Roma. One may perhaps say that there are worse human rights violations committed against various minorities around the world. True. But the fact that European Roma today are in so many ways treated the way the Jews were treated in Europe in the 1930s, must mobilize us to act. “Never again” call is still valid.