The Roma are believed to have left India about AD 1000 and to have passed through what is now Afghanistan, Persia, Armenia, and Turkey. People recognizable by other Roma as Roma still live as far east as Iran, including some who made the migration to Europe and returned. It is virtually impossible to identify Roma still living in India. By the 14th century, Roma had reached the Balkans and by the 16th century, Scotland and Sweden. Some Roma migrated south through Syria to North Africa, reaching Europe through the Strait of Gibraltar. Both currents met in today's France.
According to Dr. Trajko Petrovski, Ethnologist with the Macedonian Folklore Institute, the earliest written documents that mention Roma in the Balkans date to the 11th Century. At approximately the same time, they have acquired the name “Cigani/Tsigani” (from the Greek atsiganos – those that shouldn’t be touched) because they were so different from the local population.
The world population of Roma is difficult to establish with any certainty. Estimates suggest that there are between approximately 5 and 10 million Roma worldwide. As many as 6 to 8 million Roma live in Europe. The largest concentrations of Roma are found in the Balkan peninsula of southeastern Europe, in central Europe, the United States, and in Russia and the other successor republics of the USSR. Smaller numbers are scattered throughout western Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.

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03.07.2008 The La voix des Rroms and the EveryOne Group, joined by Rromani Baxt, Centre AVER contre le racisme, Ternikano Berno & Centre culturel gitan, started a petition against the announcement made by Italian Home Minister and Member of the North League, Roberto Maroni, of plans to record of fingerprints of Roma people in Italy.

23.06.2008 A poll conducted by the National Roma Centre (NRC) from Kumanovo, shows that almost a half of the polled Roma women live in extramarital communities, while only one in ten Roma women owns personal ID documents and proof of citizenship, which leads to the situation in which their children are not entered in the new-born children registries.

12.03.2006 Alvaro Hil Roblens the Human Rights commissioner in the Council of Europe recently in Strasburg presented a report on the Roma rights in Europe. The endangerment of this ethnical population was practically the life motive that went through in all the tones of the report. The main word was about the 10 million Roma in the member countries of the Council of Europe.

24.02.2006 The publication Roms on Integration: Analyses and Recommendations, published by ECMI – European Centre for Minority Issues presents the initial findings on the needs of Roma population in Macedonia. The research was conducted the Roma Expert Group working under the ECMI, with financial support by SIDA.