Before you make another offhand remark about Roma and Travellers in the UK, we'd like to tell you this

For our communities, segregation begins early. Roma children are among the most chronically under-achieving in the education system. Just 14 per cent of Roma children succeed in reaching minimum GCSE expectations compared with 60 per cent of their white peers

A child plays with a ball during the Appleby Horse Fair. The event is one of the key gathering points for the Romany, gypsy and traveling community (Getty Images)

The Roma community is one of the most disadvantaged ethnic groups in the UK today. It is estimated that there are at least 200,000 Roma and Travellers in Britain, although this is thought to be an underestimate due to their lack of participation in the 2011 census. Though Romani communities have been in Europe for centuries, and in the UK since the 15th century (the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland referred to a payment made to "the King of Rowmais" at Hunthall in 1505) people are still ignorant about us and our lifestyle. A recent Pew Research Centre poll found that 50 per cent of people in the UK have a negative view of the Romani community.

In fact, Romani and Traveller communities face challenges in almost every aspect of life from housing, education and employment to negative portrayals in the media. Planning applications made by ethnic Travellers are frequently rejected by councils, making integration ever more difficult.

What is most painful about being a Roma today is that often people do not see anything wrong in insulting us. When Roma go to the police with complaints of violence or harassment they often say these complaints are not taken seriously enough. Abusing other ethnic minorities is rightly seen as racist and is not tolerated, but abusing Roma is often seen as acceptable.

Many fear leaving the EU will exacerbate this. Rising xenophobia in the aftermath of Brexit, and potentially the loss of European Human Rights Convention protections, risk making British Roma even more vulnerable. For all the difficulties, Romani and Traveller communities in the UK often face a better environment than in the Eastern European countries that they have left – particularly in Hungary, Romania and Slovakia. If the UK ends freedom of movement, many Roma – who have often worked on the edges of the labour market and have moved around frequently – fear that they will be the first to be denied the right to stay post-Brexit.

For our communities, segregation begins early. Roma children are among the most chronically under-achieving in the education system. Nearly one fifth fail to achieve a “good level of development” in the early years, and it continues as they get older. Just 14 per cent of Roma children succeed in reaching minimum GCSE expectations compared with 60 per cent of their white peers. This is less surprising when school attendance is considered – Roma children are four to five times more likely to be excluded from school than their peers. Low attainment, literacy and numeracy at a young age trap Romani and Travellers in low paid, uncertain work as adults. Discrimination and abuse compound this disenfranchising experience.

The UK Roma support organisation Equality has described the low wage and temporary contracts culture, commonly organised and enforced by gangmasters, which is faced by many Roma in the UK. This vulnerable position is often exploited with many forced to live in sub-standard accommodation, shared with other families. The consequences of this lifestyle include poor physical and mental health, and life expectancy 10 years below the UK average.

Many local authorities and service provider organisations are unaware of the numbers, locations or needs of the Romani and Traveller communities residing in their areas. Even in prisons, where Roma are thought to be vastly over-represented (officially 14 per cent of the prison population identifies as Roma, Gypsy or Traveller – the prison system does not distinguish – compared to around 0.1 per cent of the population as a whole) the actual numbers are unknown. This lack of knowledge contributes to their inability to provide suitable services for Roma communities.

With signs all around that Britain is becoming less welcoming to us and more hostile in 2016, it seems some very important lessons of history have been forgotten. Progress toward this recognition would be aided by greater appreciation of the historic suffering of Roma during the Second World War and by Europe-wide acknowledgement of our particular tragedy.

Roma across Europe will gather today at memorials in major cities including London to mark perhaps the darkest chapter of our past. During what we refer to as the Pharrajimos, the Nazis killed up to 500,000 of our people, around 25 per cent of all European Roma. This peaked on the night of 2nd August 1944 in the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. Following an earlier attempt that had been fought off, the SS murdered an estimated 3,000 surviving Roma — mainly the young, old and infirm — in the gas chambers.

As we mark 2nd August this year, social equality and inclusion in the UK should not be something for which we have to fight so hard.

Katalin Barsony is a Roma activist, filmmaker, and executive director of the Budapest based Romedia Foundation

Damian James LeBas is a Roma filmmaker, a published poet, author and journalist