An action to remove 101 illegal buildings near the Stara Zagora “Lozenets” quarter is underway. In the months before it, 14 buildings were voluntarily removed; another 30 are awaiting a court decision under an appeal procedure. A total of 450 illegal Roma buildings in and near the quarter have been removed in recent years.
The Stara Zagora municipality in Bulgaria has started the demolition of more than a hundred “illegal” Roma houses. According to the municipality, there was no way that these houses could be regularised. A few families have apparently accepted the offers for municipal housing, but most have not.
Bad.
A fire on a beach in Otmanli near Burgas, Bulgaria, is being blamed on the nearby Roma settlement, as according to the paper, Roma often use barbecue. They then add that one doesn’t yet know the exact cause …
According to a news article, 140 Roma lost their houses because of a fire in their settlement in the Poprad district.
The Atlas of Roma Communities estimates the number of Roma living in Slovakia at over 405 thousand, which is about eight percent of the population and much higher than the official last census, almost by a factor 3. Larger communities live in over 800 villages and towns.
The largest Roma settlement in Slovakia is in Jarovnice in the Prešov Region. About 8,500 Roma live there, and almost a thousand of them live illegally. i.e. their houses are not legally registered.
According to the article, Roma love to live there… This can sincerely be doubted.
The residents of Jarovnice, Slovakia, will never forget July 20, 1998, when six storm clouds combined and brought the most devastating flood in the last millennium. To this day, when it starts to rain, Roma from their houses by the stream run to the hill for safety.
Jaroslav Červeňák was 14 years old when the largest Roma settlement in Slovakia was flooded.
“It was hot and muggy, and then around 2 p.m. it started to rain. At first it looked like a summer shower. Then a big storm hit. Today there would be a warning, but there were no mobile phones back then. People were cooking and washing, no one was prepared for it,” recalls Mr. Červeňák, who lost his aunt and cousin that day.
The Novo Mesto Municipality recently wanted to implement the decision of the building inspection and demolish illegal construction in the Roma settlement of Žabjak, but the police and the social work centre prevented it from doing so, Novo Mesto Mayor Gregor Macedoni revealed on TV Odmevi on Wednesday.
He also said that the state will have to decide whether we will have one legislation for everyone or not.
The police did not want to provide security during the demolition because not all legal conditions were met, and the Social Welfare Department opposed the demolition of one of the houses because a Roma family with several children lived in it and assessed that the demolition would cause additional social hardship that it would have to deal with.
According to Milorad Mihanović, president of the Sitnice Local Board “the Roma settlement of Sitnice is one of the more well-organized in Međimurje. It has electricity, water, sewage, paved roads, and even broadband internet.”
About 700 locals will soon get a Roma multicultural centre – a place for education, social events, and also for children to stay. The Roma multicultural centre, a project that aims to enrich the social and cultural life of the community, has been put “under the roof”, and the value of the first phase of construction is 566,000 EUR and the funds were obtained from the budget of the Ministry of Regional Development and European Union funds, the Council for National Minorities of the Republic of Croatia and the Roma Alliance in the Republic of Croatia “KALI SARA”. The main investor and implementer of the project is the City of Mursko Središće.
Now, apparently, there is a drive to rename the street after Veljko Kajtazi, the president of the Kali Sara organisation.
Upon arriving at the tiny apartment, an unexpected sight awaited the Australian woman. Although the apartment building seems cramped, the apartment that the young woman visited did not look any different from a normal Slovak household. The apartment was smaller, but considering what she saw outside, she was surprised by the cozy and clean environment.
Well, stereotypes are hard to kill …
The sad story of an archaeological site on top of which there is a Roma settlement in Slovakia. Although everyone agrees the settlement needs to be relocated. The issue, in spite of available funds, is that no one wants to have these Roma as neighbours…
This has been going on for years.
The Roma neighbourhood of Zaharna Fabrika is currently being destroyed. The houses were deemed illegal. This occurred in spite of a ruling by the European Court of Human Right from April 11th asking for a delay until the ongoing law case is solved.
Shame.
The city of Veľký Šariš today began installing new unimo cells for residents who lost theirs in the tragic fire on March 19th with five victims. After today’s installation of the connection on Thursday, the unimocells (container housing units) will be connected to the existing networks, and the tenants should start moving into them from Friday.
It is in such housing units that the fire started. And nothing has really been done to prevent a further tragedy. But this is at least something.
The mayor of the village of Torysa near Sabinov has ordered the residents of the settlement to remove illegal buildings. They are using the land on which their homes stand without any legal title. The government’s plenipotentiary for Roma communities Alexander Daško is looking for a systemic solution with the mayor of the village of Torysa. The demolition of 77 illegal dwellings would deprive four hundred Roma of a roof over their heads. Miriam Žiaková, director of the media department of the Office of the Plenipotentiary of the Government of the Slovak Republic for Roma Communities, informed about this.
An Australian woman did a reportage inside apartments of the infamous Lunik IX estate in Slovakia. And surprise. The apartments are clean and well kept. Roma tell he about discrimination, especially when looking for work.
On Saturday evening, Romani students during the BARUVAS meeting in Brno symbolically joined the memorial service for the victims of the tragic fire in the Romani settlement in Veľký Šariš, Slovakia. Each of the twenty-five participants lit a candle and together honored the memory of four small children and their great-grandmother who died in the night fire.
In cooperation with the government’s plenipotentiary for Roma communities, Alexander Dašek the city administration is working on a housing solution for the people who lost their homes in the fire in the Roma settlement.
Many articles in the Slovak and in the Czech press about the fire in the Roma settlement of Veľkém Šariši which killed 4 children and a woman and destroyed several houses. Alexander Daško, the government’s plenipotentiary for Roma communities, went in the settlement in the Prešov region. He wants to go to Brussels and provide modular housing for the Roma in the settlements.
Up till now, he hasn’t done much to help and is heavily criticised.
The fire in a Roma settlement in Veľký Šariš on March 19th claimed the lives of four young children and one adult woman and burnt 8 homes to the ground. It has severely affected not only the local Roma community, but also the general public. Roma activists, politicians and representatives of institutions are reacting to the tragedy. Roma leader Jozef Stojka called on Roma in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and throughout the European Union to light a candle in memory of the victims on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. According to him, the tragedy revealed a long-term crisis in the state’s approach to marginalized Roma communities.
The mayor of the municipality of Dolné Vestenice in Slovakia, Viliam Šuhajda, declared an emergency situation for the territory of the municipality, specifically in the Kopanice part, with effect from March 19, 2025 at 3:00 p.m. The reason for this decision is slope deformation, which poses a serious risk to residents and infrastructure in the area.
The issue: Below that slope lies a Roma settlement. And the municipality said they had no alternative place to resettle them…
David Neff won the Czech Press Photo for his photo of the tragic floods in a Roma settlement in eastern Slovakia, but his main protagonist, Sister Atanázie Holubová, was not too thrilled with the photo. “I was a little angry with him. Why do you still have to take pictures of it?”
The flood occurred in Jarovnice on July 20th, 1998.
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