Tag Archives: Settlement

Croatia News Eastern Europe

Croatia: Fire

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Croatia: Fire

Three children died in a fire in a Roma settlement in Croatia.

News Eastern Europe Poland

Poznan: Fire

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Poznan: Fire

A fire in a Roma neighbourhood in Poznan, Poland, sent plumes of smoke through the city. Apparently, this was a fire in a garbage dump. The articles say that this often occurs, de-facto blaming Roma.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Relocation

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Slovakia: Relocation

The city of Žilina will remove unimo cells (basically containers), in which 28 Roma families lived after the fires in Roma settlements in 2009 and 2016. These containers, on Bratislavská Street will be replaced by an apartment building built for 200’000 euros, and there are further plans for another 800’000 euros. Some members of the social commission proposed the abolition of the settlemtn and the immediate integration of Roma among residents in other parts of the city.

Well either way, if the residents do not have jobs and education, this will provide little progress.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgaria and Mahala

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Bulgaria and Mahala

An unfinished apartment block, where Roma families have settled themselves and are raising their children there, continues to be a major problem according to the people of the neighbourhood. Residents have repeatedly filed reports that public order is being violated.

Now these issues in Humni Dol were discussed at a second working meeting between representatives of the local government as well as with Roma mediators. It is doubtful they will find solutions …

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia and a Settlement

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Slovakia and a Settlement

The village of Kolačkov (Stará Ľubovňa district) has a Roma settlement that is threatened by a landslide. The Roma settlement should be moved but the municipality claims it has no land to do so, also because two nature protection zones, one for birds and one for a small stream.

Basically, they would prefer the Roma to leave …

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and Roma

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Slovenia and Roma

Roma in Southeastern Slovenia have a very bad reputation, and not a week goes by without some headlines in the Slovenian press about the Roma “problem”.

But not all Roma are like that. At the initiative of Silva Mesojedec from the Regional Civil Initiative (RCI) and Darko Rudaš, president of the Forum of Roma Councilors from the Roma settlement Pušča in Prekmurje, members of the RCI and also members of the People’s Initiative (LI) Šentjernej recently went to visit and see Pušča near Murska Sobota. There, they found a clean settlement, well ordered, with people working. The settlement has ca. 600 inhabitants.

Europe News Eastern Europe Poland

Poland and Roma

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Poland and Roma

The European Court of Human Rights found that the demolition of a Roma settlement in 2015 by the city of Wrocław violated the European Convention on Human Rights. A complaint against the Polish authorities was filed by Roma, citizens of Romania.

On July 22, 2015, the city of Wrocław liquidated the Roma settlement on Paprotna Street. At the time of the demolition, the settlement consisted of five buildings. The families (adults and children) had been living in the settlement since 2009. The complaint to the ECtHR was filed in early 2016.

News Eastern Europe Poland

Poznan: Closure?

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Poznan: Closure?

The Roma settlement, located on the former 23 Lutego Family Allotment Gardens at Umultowska and Lechicka streets in Poznań lies on private land. Currently, court proceedings are underway regarding the city’s adverse possession of this land from 1 September 1990.

This story has been going on for years now…

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia, Settlements, and Water

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Slovakia, Settlements, and Water

A reportage on a Roma settlement in Slovakia with 3’000 residents, and only one well. Apparently, 6 water points were built with EU funds, but none of them work. Here, they say they are repeatedly damaged by vandals.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Stolipinovo

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Stolipinovo

The vlogger is the American Drew Goldberg, known by his online pseudonym Drew Binsky, with more that 5 mio followers visited the Stolipinovo Mahala in Plovdiv.

It is considered the largest in Bulgaria with over 40,000 Roma residents. To date, the problems in this district are many, the main ones being the problem with garbage, crime and drugs. Some people even describe the place as a “city within a city”.

Lithuania News Eastern Europe

Vilnius and Roma “Amaro Džipen – Our Lives”

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Vilnius and Roma “Amaro Džipen – Our Lives”

A few years ago, the former mayor of Vilnius proudly announced on Facebook that the city had gotten rid of the “dark warehouse” that scared everyone. This is how the authorities of that time dehumanized the Roma settlement in the Porubanka district, which was finally razed to the ground in 2020.

Today, four years later, young Roma who grew up in Porubanka decided to take the floor and tell their story on their own terms. The exhibition not only restores the memory of the former settlement, but, above all, challenges established stereotypes and questions the way the city treats its marginalized residents.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Beautification?

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Beautification?

From November 25 to December 3, 2024, a large-scale artistic visual work was realized in Humenné, Slovakia, on one of the apartment buildings in the Podskalka area.

“The mural is the result of more than six months of the Muse, Walls, Murals project and the authors of the design are renowned artists Viktor Feher and Samuel Velebný. The goal was to search for the history, roots, traditions and stories of the settlement through community-educational meetings with children from the Podskalka locality. This is how the idea for creating a mural that describes Podskalka arose,” explained the project representatives.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and Roma Settlements

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Slovenia and Roma Settlements

An interview of Jasna Hudorovič, a 60-year-old Romni who was born to a single mother in Gornje Lepovče, Ribnica. She has now lived in the Roma settlement in Goriča Vas near Ribnica for forty years and has been without water and electricity her entire life.

This says it all …

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

A Roma Mission in a Settlement

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A Roma Mission in a Settlement

The story of a Czech man, who founded the Christian Roma Mission in a Roma settlement in Slovakia. Success and difficulties.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Roma Settlements and Waste

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Roma Settlements and Waste

An article about the issue of waste from a Roma settlement in Slovakia (an ‘Osada’) which washes down in a water reservoir below. Of course, the blame is on Roma who dump garbage and more behind their houses.

But …

There is no garbage collection, there are no sewers, and in many of those settlements, there is no runnign water. Now, who’s to blame?

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: Shooting

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On September 8, shots were fired in the Roma settlement of Šmihel in Novo Mesto, and just a few minutes later another house caught fire. Apparently, two Roma families quarreled. One of thm reported the other for illegal construction, whereby the second shot at his neighbour.

Bad.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: A Successful Settement?

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The local community of Pušča shows a rather different image of a Roma settlement compared to the Roma settlements in Dolenjsko. In the village there is a shop, a fire brigade, a football club and also a bookstore. The kindergarten, which has been around for more than 60 years, is especially important.

In the Romano kindergarten in Pušča, in addition to the teachers, there is also a Roma helper who makes sure that the children from the village get used to everyday life in the kindergarten as soon as possible.

Nice, but this is segregated schooling, which is not good.

 

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: Another View on a Roma Settlement

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We are not all the same, say the Roma at the community center in the Brezje Roma settlement in Novo Mesto. The coordinator for Roma groups at the DRPD, Elzana Adnan Odjoski, deals with them there. She runs a program aimed at teenagers and young mothers, in which young people from the age of 15 are involved.

The young mothers agree that their children should go to kindergarten, but not to a Roma kindergarten, but to a normal kindergarten, where they get to know other children and learn the language at the same time. They also said that “Some talk to us, some don’t even look at us, and some immediately run away when they see us”.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia, Water, and Crime

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Quite a few discussions in the Slovene press of the action of the Ribnica mayor who said he’d not supply drinking water to settlements as long as Roma do not improve their behaviour. Another mayor said that if people believe that denying drinking water in settlements (that by the way, are de-facto illegal) will encourage children to go to school is not understanding anything about the Roma issue. Another article, on the opposite side bemoans the increased criminality of Roma in the country. On the Slovenian TV, a round table on Roma says that Due to the ineffectiveness of institutions in responding to burglaries, robberies, violence and illegal constructions, mayors and residents are increasingly angry. Where did all the millions that the state distributes to all ends for greater inclusion, employment and education of the Roma go?

Bad.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: An accord

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In the town of Ribnica, in Southeastern Slovenia, Roma organizations and the management of the municipality met at a joint meeting. Among other things, they agreed that the municipality will provide drinking water to two settlements when the residents there meet a set of requirements. The municipality requires that Roma, among other things, be get involved in the integration process, send their children to school regularly, clean up the settlement and determine land boundaries.

In brief: So that the municipality provides a service that is due to all its residents, Roma have to fulfil some criteria. Especially the integration one, how will they measure that?

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