Not much this week in France The coutnry is more focused on its government (or potential lack thereof) than about Roma. Only one notable article about the closure of a larg Roma camp near Nantes.
Roma want to be treated with dignity as citizens and people – says Karolina Kwiatkowska, Communications and PR Director at the Central Council of Roma in Poland. A large number of Roma people live in Poznań. MOPR Poznań is trying to ensure that the integration between the Polish and Roma communities is smooth. One of the more difficult cases is the encampment on Lechicka Street.
In two neighborhoods of Fushë-Kosovo, Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities face a lack of basic services. However, activists from a non-governmental organization have launched a project aimed at transforming these settlements. The problem in this case is the properties whose owners appear to be Serbs.
Roma families were recently evicted from a building that was deemed insalubrious. Now the children are in the street and at risk to be out of school.
Bad.
Dozens of Bulgarian Roma families in Duisburg have received letters from the German municipal authorities informing them that they must vacate their apartments by mid-September 2024, according to the organisation “Stolipinovo in Europe”.
The local authorities also specify that the affected tenants are all tenants of Gertrudenstraße, Diesterwegstraße, Pestalozzistraße, Wilfriedstraße, Halskestraße and Wiesenstraße, who are in fact tenants of the company Ivere Property Management. It turns out that the company that owns the buildings, about fifty in total, has not paid electricity and water bills to the municipal property management company for months. It now intends to cut off the drinking water supply, which, according to the municipal authorities, makes the apartments unfit for consumption and leads to a mass eviction.
In a small room above the police station, right in the center of the colony on Coburgova Street in greater Trnava, two young people are trying to fight windmills. Despite all the hardships that work with Roma bring, Juraj Štofej and Jana Martinkovičová claim that they enjoy it.
Roma families protests in front of the Ribnič municipality began more than fifteen years ago, and their demands have always been the same, namely that the local authority should solve their housing problems.
The Union of Roma of Slovenia is now trying to calm the strained relations between the local authorities and the local Roma. Their representatives visited two Roma settlements in Ribnica yesterday and advised the local residents not to intensify their protest. They suggested that they first establish a dialogue with the mayor, with whom they had already agreed on a joint meeting.
The municipality of Velingrad has started a procedure to legalize the illegal buildings in the Roma neighbourhoods of the city. In Bulgaria, many houses in Roma settlements have never been registered and there are often no property documents.
The aim is to give the households who live in the houses there the right and the obligation to pay taxes. This will limit the illegal use of electricity and water.
Almost nothing this week in France about Rom. Just the story of the closure of a camp near Strasbourg. This story is typical of the way France deals with such things: 120 Roma settled near a highway access ramp in 2019. They slowly built a maeksift camp, and now, the camp has been closed for being insalubrious.
Frankly, it was the case since the beginning. Its inhabitants have yet to be permanetly re-located.
A reportage on where it is best to live in the Balkans if one is Rom. As usual, unfortunately, one only speaks about the very visible Roma.
Šimon and his wife Romana only know life in a Roma settlement. They show their house in Hrušovce, which has only one, but cozy room. It serves as bedroom, living room, kitchen and bathroom all in one. Šimon says that they would like to move with the help of the organization DOM.ov.
The organisation helps Roma obtain a better home. They have to be employed, have an income to be able to pay the mortgage. At the same time, they must start saving a year in advance, at least 100 euros per month. The NGO then helps them getting and building a new home.
Following a monitoring visit to Slovakia, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Michael O’Flaherty called for an urgent housing solution for the Roma, who often live in unsatisfactory conditions without sewage or access to drinking water.
Following a monitoring visit to Slovakia, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Michael O’Flaherty called for an urgent housing solution for the Roma, who often live in unsatisfactory conditions without sewage or access to drinking water.
Let’s see …
After a recent visit to Slovakia, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Michael O’Flaherty called on the Slovak authorities to urgently address the “terrible living conditions” of thousands of Roma. In the east of Slovakia, he visited Stará Tehelňa in Prešov, Jarovnice, Petrovany, Luník IX in Košice and Kecerovce, where he met with representatives of Roma communities, local authorities and groups working with Roma.
“Prejudice against Roma is deeply rooted in society. Discrimination affects all areas of Roma life in Slovakia: from placing Roma women in separate maternity wards to segregated Roma children in education. Many Roma are deprived of access to adequate housing and are rejected in job interviews, ” he stated.
A reportage in Spiš, Slovakia, where many residents of the Roma settlement work in the UK and return home with nice cars, luxury goods, and renovate their houses. The story from exclusion to integration, albeit in another country.
The Roma settlement in Koszary, located in the Limanowa region, are to be demolished as they were built without permits. A company has been contracted to demolish the houses. But they are not empty, as nothing has been done to re-locate the Roma families living there.
Bad.
The premiere of a short documentary film “Domov západ života” [Home, the basis of life], dedicated to the innovative practice of guaranteed housing, was held in Prague on June 28, 2024.
The guaranteed housing system, as presented in the document, plays a key role in providing affordable housing. A key role in this process is played by the guarantor, which can be a municipality or a non-profit organization. In the slide you can see how the system works, its benefits for all stakeholders and the real impacts.
A team, appointed by the Voivode of Lesser Poland to solve the problems of the Roma community in Koszary has started work. Currently, the settlement located on plots belonging to the Limanowa commune is inhabited by over 120 Roma (including a large group of children), but a large part of them live in unauthorized construction works, which are subject to a valid demolition order. The first proposals were made on how to effectively enforce the law without escalating tensions in the area where the Roma have lived for half a century. One idea is to relocate Roma families to larger cities.
Already a few years ago, families living in the buildings, brick houses with water, sewage and electricity connections, received final decisions requiring demolition. So far, none of them has complied with the order.
The city of Vsetín will file a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg in the case of the eviction of Roma in 2006. In his opinion, the right to a fair trial was violated in the dispute. The court condemned the city of Vsetín for the eviction of Roma from a boarding house in 2006.
The house was in bad condition, and the city then had it demolished. Some of its residents, including the plaintiffs in the case, had previously failed to pay rent. The Roma ended up either in container houses elsewhere in Vsetín or in old houses outside the region.
Roma living in an unused building in Lausanne have been ordered by a tribunal to leave the place by July 1st. Where to and how remains to be seen.
A judge is set to decide whether Roma who live in a building in Lausane will be expulsed or can remain there until the end of the month.
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