Roma Evicted in Miercurea Ciuc |
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What is affected |
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Type of violation |
Forced eviction |
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Date | 01 August 2004 | ||||||||
Region | E [ Europe ] | ||||||||
Country | Romania | ||||||||
Location | Miercurea Ciuc, Harguita | ||||||||
Affected persons |
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Proposed solution | |||||||||
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Development | |||||||||
Forced eviction | |||||||||
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Duty holder(s) /responsible party(ies) |
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Brief narrative |
Extract from Amnesty International article "Europe`s Roma Community Still Facing Massive Discriminatiom" 8 April 2009 Article found at : http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/feature-stories/europes-roma-community-still-facing-massive-discrimination-20090408#romania "REFUSING ADEQUATE HOUSING IN ROMANIA "In August 2004, over 100 Roma were evicted from a building in Miercurea Ciuc, in the mainly Hungarian county of Harguita. The 12 families now live in an 800m² field. Signs on the fences around nearby waste water filtering station warn of toxic danger. The authorities provided eight metal barracks for the Roma to live in. They were not enough, so the Roma built another 14 houses from wood and other materials. The dwellings are connected to the filtering station`s electricity and water supply. When they run out of wood – a certain amount of which is provided by the municipality – the people heat the barracks using solid fuel. The barracks do not offer sufficient protection from cold or rain. Weather conditions during the winter are very harsh and temperatures can reach -26°C. Transportation is provided by the municipality to take the children to the Roma-only primary school at the other end of the town. According to the testimony of local Roma, living conditions are an extreme danger to health, due to the proximity to the waste-water filtering station and the adverse weather conditions. The placement of the Roma on the site was supposed to be a temporary solution. The community has been living there for more than four years now. Other Roma evicted from the same building in 2004 decided they did not want to go to the barracks provided. Instead they built shacks next to the rubbish dump, an hour’s walk from the town. Living conditions there are equally inadequate. A number of Roma people have filed a complaint of discrimination against the authorities. The non-governmental organization Romani CRISS (Roma Center for Social Intervention and Studies) in partnership with the National Council for Combating Discrimination (NCCD) documented the case in July 2005, making numerous visits to the site. At the time, the Vice Mayor of Miercurea Ciuc was reported to have said that this was not a case of discrimination. He said that, at most, it could be considered as positive discrimination, arguing that the Roma who were moved near the filtering station were provided with free land from the private property of the state along with a connection to electricity and water networks, utilities being paid by the local authority. The case has also been covered by the local and national media. So far, nothing has changed." | ||||||||
Costs | € 0 | ||||||||