[Music] the streets of slow are a snapshot of modern Britain it has one of the most multiethnic populations in the country second only to London in its diversity a long way from their Homeland some Romanian gypsies have decided to settle in slow hardly a part of England renowned for its chocolate box qualities so why have they come here you know I think I might know why I've spent a lot of time in Romania and it's a country I've really grown to love but I've never met any Romanian who has anything decent to say about their Gypsy minority so now they've moved here what do the Roma get up to on a daily basis and what kind of an impression are they making if you see a gang of them 20 or 30 of them it looks it's intimidatory isn't it don't think you could trust them they they marck up the area see I want them all out they all tees get out of my country views like these are presumably what the gypsies were trying to get away from when they came here but the RoR of chvi and slau clearly have an image problem most of us knew little about them until operation caddy hit the news on January the 24th this year it was no lowprofile police raid instead involving 400 officers many in full riot gear armed with battering rams targeting 17 homes including this one belonging to Marius miku's family where despite the door being smashed down at 5:00 a.m. no one was arrested they really went for it didn't they this this is extraordinary it was a very shocking moment for me I mean just wake up with a bang and people screaming don't move don't move didn't even explain what was going on put handcuffs on we just they put handcuffs on you yes you're a school kid yeah in the glare of the cameras 10 children were forcibly taken away generating LD headlines about child trafficking and Fagan gangsters confirming the worst possible stereotypes of gypsies among their neighbors in cheli they do child trafficking they're irritating how do you know they do yeah cuz they had they got some of them got arrested and it's like um prostitutes and that it was under news cuz of drugs as well so you believe it cuz it was on the news yeah and I Liv close to them and I saw the police outside and know thing I was wondering what was going on to like I turned up the new and I saw them but it wasn't quite like that almost immediately nine of the 10 children taken by the police were returned to the community and there was never any suggestion of prostitution or drug dealing a number of arrests were made for suspected benefit fraud and stolen goods but many of the Roma feel the raid was out of all proportion with the relatively minor nature of such crimes they feel victimized and are too scared to speak out marus is an exception I'm not saying that gypsies are perfect you do get some bad gypsies but at the same time you do get some white people that do different stuff as well as some black people and some Asian people that doesn't mean that everybody does it marius's Mom Elena keeps an open house at any given time of day her kitchen is full of a happily chaotic extended family and even adopted strangers like me how many children have you had have five children okay and is that for us is many children is that normal normal five six seven 10 10 yes I'm like too much children I'm like too much every Gypsy like too much children it's a very important in your culture yes the mesus arrived in 1999 when they were granted a Asylum since then against many preconceptions all their kids have gone to school grandchildren delpo and Norris will also go when they're old enough he's only three so he doesn't speak Romanian and he doesn't speak English so I can't speak to him at all because he speaks Roma which is the gypsy language I don't know how to speak gypsy language no no you know if all you've heard of these people the Roma population or all you've seen those pictures in the news the police raid the child trafficking accusations then I think there's a tendency to think no smoke without fire something must be going on but I've come here I've got to know these guys over a couple of months and I've never seen so much how are you're very well I've never seen so much kind of love in a family unlike the mesus P bland is a recent arrival since joining the EU in 2006 Romanian Nationals are allowed to enter into the country but unlike the poles for example they have no automatic right to work this leaves migrants like P in a bit of a predicament so no surprise that at the end of our first meeting in shalvi she was asking me for money I asked her about the negative image the gypsies have of being Beggars and thieves and using their children for dishonest purposes was this Fair it's not fair because if we were give them work we wouldn't do such things but if they don't give us any work we need to do something because otherwise we would starve in the street so does that mean if you don't have money you sometimes have to do things that aren't honest yes yes but do you do anything that isn't honest I'm honest if I have work and getting money but if not then what am I supposed to do grin and bear it I go and beg [Music] back at the mesus a spontaneous party has broken out in the kitchen Nikolai is a Snappy mover and a sharp dresser he also drives a much loved 4x4 which got me wondering how now financially do you for example buy a car do you have work or what what what's the system my system now yeah my system now I'm looking for work you're looking no looking for work and in the summer do you work in agriculture what do you work as I'm work in the farm yeah yes I'm start this next uh this month I'm starting farm and you what do you do you pick fruit pick yes which leaves me little the wiser I'm still not quite sure where Nikolai gets all his money from currently on benefits twice a week he's sent by the job center to learn it skills at this class I was impressed by his determination to make the most of the opportunity he he didn't have like the the basic knowledge that he that that he would like to have so he was a bit reluctant in the beginning that if he could able to cope or not but really he really wanted to learn something I would say and he's really working hard for that to me Nikolai and his family seem like warm and decent people try as I might I can't Square the headlines generated by the police raid in January with the gypsies I have met traffic children huh what is this I know believe that my children is my life why do traffic for children this is light is light it's nonsense do you know do you know one Gypsy who traffics children never you know no no Gypsy traffic never never [Music] never last Sunday the Gypsy community celebrated their Easter and I was invited everyone dressed in their finest the music was loud a whole lamb was Reed for the feast even the sun came out after a storm and a little bit of Romania was created right here in the unlikely setting of chelby gypsies definitely get a bad press and that's the reason I came here to slow to find out what was going on behind the stories and these are some of the families that I've met and I've received from them great hospitality and we've become friends and it surprises me that in Britain today we're still prepared to give lazy labels to people whom we know so little about