The evictees from Coastei Street want to be moved so that they can return to the life they had before the eviction (c) Amnesty International
By Barbora Cernusakova and Catrinel Motoc, Amnesty International’s EU Team
Support the call for justice of the Roma community forcibly evicted from Coastei Street by taking action
After five months we returned to the city of Cluj – Napoca, in North Western Romania and visited the community forcibly evicted in December 2010. We met again with the inspiring people who have tirelessly fought this injustice ever since. Continuar leyendo ‘The families from Coastei Street keep fighting – support their call for justice!’ »
A bulldozer parked just metres from the via Sacile camp is a reminder that the construction works will go ahead © Private
By Matteo de Bellis, Europe Campaigner at Amnesty International
“We know we have to leave because of the construction works, but they should give us a place to go, not just leave us in the street.”
Giovanni speaks to me while standing in front of a line of shacks, grouped in an area as small as a seven-a-side football pitch.
Continuar leyendo ‘“We’d like a place to stay” – Milan’s Roma face eviction’ »
'Activists in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, call for an end to forced evictions on World Habitat Day, 3 October 2011.' (c) Grupul de Lucru al Organizatiilor Civice (gLOC)
By Barbora Cernusakova and Fotis Filippou, Amnesty International’s EU team
Hundreds of people, the majority Roma, live in a long-standing settlement close to a landfill and a chemical waste dump in Pata Rât, on the periphery of Cluj-Napoca, the third largest city in north-west Romania. More than 70 families, most of them Roma, were moved here to inadequate new housing units, two and a half kilometres from the closest bus stop and far from schools, health services and jobs, after they were forcibly evicted in December 2010 from Coastei Street in the centre of the city.
Florin Stancu was not at home when the municipality announced the eviction, 48 hours before it happened. “I was in Italy for work and I received a phone call to come as soon as possible, because they are demolishing our homes. I took a plane from Rome and arrived at 11pm on 16 December 2010. Everybody had packed. They were told that at 5am the municipal police will come. Whoever had packed would be moved normally. Whoever had not would be moved by force. I asked: ‘Why are you moving us in the middle of the winter? Why are you sending us there with the garbage?’” Continuar leyendo ‘“Allow us to live in dignity” – calling an end to forced evictions in Romania’ »
Roma are confined to inadequate housing conditions in Romania © Amnesty International
By Barbora Cernusakova, Researcher in the EU Team, and Fotis Filippou, Campaigner in the EU Team
In a few hours, we will leave Romania after spending two and a half weeks researching the housing conditions of Roma. We visited 11 communities in five towns in the eastern and northern part of the country.
Across the different counties we saw segregated housing, inadequate living conditions and people living in fear of being forcibly evicted. We visited people living in a former chicken farm, in buildings and shacks situated in industrial areas of towns – next to sewage plants, garbage dumps or piles of bauxite. We spoke to people who had no access to water and sanitation facilities; to people who had to walk kilometers to access schools, employment and health services. We spoke to a woman in front of the ruins of her house three weeks after she was forcibly evicted from it and authorities demolished it. In all of the cases we visited, the inhumane conditions in which people lived, were a result of either an action or lack of action by the local authorities. Continuar leyendo ‘Pushing Romania to see housing as a human right’ »
The families are socially excluded and their living conditions are inhumane © Amnesty International
By Fotis Filippou, EU Team Campaigner for Amnesty International
Amnesty International recently visited Romania, where we met with a Romani community living behind a sewage treatment plant in Miercurea Ciuc, central Romania.
More than six years after they were forcibly evicted from their homes, around 75 Roma people, including families with children, are living in unsanitary conditions in metal cabins and shacks.
Continuar leyendo ‘Roma community in Romania still treated like waste six years on’ »
