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 did n't go through a legal process . On Thursday , a Bulgarian woman came forward to say she left the girl in Greece with a family she worked for in 2009 , Bulgarian Interior Ministry General Secretary Svetlozar Lazarov said . Rights groups say the latest case is bound to shine a harsh spotlight once again on the Roma . `` The risk of this case is to further put more stereotype and racism on the general picture of the Roma community , '' said Dezideriu Gergely , executive director of European Roma Rights Centre . `` What is important here is to understand that this case is not one that defines the Roma . It is a case that needs to be looked at as an individual case and that could happen in any minority group . Not culturally related to the Roma minority or ethnically related to the Roma minority . Criminality is not ethnically related . '' Photo gallery : The plight of the Roma . How are the Roma today ? Today , one in three Roma in Europe are unemployed and 90 % live below the poverty line , according to the European Union Agency for Fundamental Human Rights . Many Roma continue to live in camps or caravans , but it 's hard to say how many prefer that lifestyle and how many simply can not find a way to settle down . Advocates say the Roma are denied a fair chance to secure housing , employment and education . And the EU human rights agency said governments must act to stop the `` exclusion '' of the Roma from mainstream society . How many people are Romani ? From 10 million to 12 million in Europe , according to the EU human rights agency , which said last year that the Roma are Europe 's largest minority . Most live in southern and eastern Europe , although they can be found throughout the continent . What is their language ? The Romani language includes multiple dialects , all evolved from Sanskrit . The language is largely unwritten , however , because of the high rates of illiteracy in most Roma communities , according to information from Minnesota State University . What is their religion ? Some are Christian and some are Muslim , having converted while migrating through Persia and the Balkans , according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum . Why were they called gypsies ? Because when they entered Europe -- perhaps from the 8th to 10th centuries , although scholars differ on the timeline -- people mistakenly thought they came from Egypt . Actually , they originated in the Punjab region of India . The term `` gypsy '' is considered pejorative by some Roma . Romani scholar Ian Hancock , a Romani raised in Great Britiain , says the term falsely implies that Roma are not a race -- that they are simply a group choosing a lifestyle . Why did the Roma become nomads ? Probably because they were distrusted and discriminated against by Europeans . Like Jews , the Roma often were prohibited from buying land or entering the more stable occupations . At some point , the nomadic lifestyle became the norm for them . By the 20th century , the number of truly nomadic Roma began declining . Some advocates say many Europeans 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 . What kind of discrimination did they face ? Roma were living in Spain , France , England , and large parts of what is today Russia and Eastern Europe by the late 1400s . They suffered persecution in those countries ranging from laws against their language and dress to expulsion , according to Minnesota State . In the beginning of the 15th century , many Roma were forced into slavery by Hungarian and Romanian nobles who needed laborers for their large estates , according to the university . Roma suffered persecution during World War II . The Nazis judged Roma to be `` racially inferior , '' according to the Holocaust museum . `` Their fate in some ways paralleled that of the Jews , '' the museum said . The Nazis subjected Roma to internment , forced labor , and murder . `` While exact figures or percentages can not be ascertained , historians estimate that the Germans and their allies killed around 25 % of all European Roma , '' the museum says . `` Of slightly less than 1 million Roma believed to have been living in Europe before the war , the Germans and their Axis partners killed up to 220,000 . '' Is the modern discrimination just economic ? Amnesty International says European governments continue to actively discriminate against the Roma . The organization says the French government , ignoring court rulings , continues to evict people from Roma settlements with inadequate provision for other housing . Amnesty International is spotlighting segregation of Romani children in schools in Slovakia . School segregation also has been an issue in Greece . The European Court for Human Rights ruled that Greek authorities discriminated against Roma children in the town of Aspropyrgos , where non-Roma parents in 2005 blockaded an elementary school to demonstrate against the admission of Roma children . The Roma children were placed in a separate building .
Roma agency : 25 % to 70 % of Roma live below poverty line . Roma are Europe 's largest minority . EU arrived from India the 15th century , usually unwelcome in Punjab . School segregation , forced evictions are among issues .