Livewire – Amnesty International blogging for human rights

The Roma community forcibly evicted from Coastei Street has been living in the New Pata Rat area since December 2010. (c) Joshua Gross, Joshua Tree Photography

By Creta Ernest & Fekete Petru members of the Coastei Street community,

Support the call for justice of the Roma community forcibly evicted from Coastei Street by taking action

It’s been over a year 76 families, the majority Roma, were forcibly evicted from the centre of the city of Cluj-Napoca in Romania. Over half of the families were re-housed in new housing units on the outskirts of the city in the New Pata Rat area, close to a garbage dump and a former chemical waste dump, in inadequate housing conditions. The rooms are overcrowded, they do not provide protection from damp and mould and the sanitation facilities are inadequate. 36 families, including the authors of the blog entry, were not provided with any alternative housing. Most of them had to construct improvised homes. They have no access to water, sanitation and electricity. With only a verbal agreement from the municipality and no formal title to the land, they live in a fear of eviction and of losing their homes again. Two young Roma who experienced the eviction shared it with us their story during the recent mission to Cluj-Napoca.

“The forced eviction from Coastei Street nr. 18 started on 15 December 2010. We aim to be as brief as possible in describing the traumatising event which took place from 15 to 17 December 2010. Continue reading ‘Roma community forcibly evicted from Coastei Street share their story’

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.
Continue reading ‘“We’d like a place to stay” – Milan’s Roma face eviction’

Ernest Creta, one of the Roma men forcibly evicted in December 2011, among others participating at the March for Social Justice in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, 19 December 2011. (c) Csaba Farkas

By Enikő Vincze*, Adrian Dohotaru* and Cristina Raţ*, on behalf of the Working Group of Civil Organizations (glOC), Cluj-Napoca, Romania

The 19^th of December 2011 was incredibly sunny for the smoggy city of Cluj-Napoca, up on the hills of central Romania. As people gathered near the Heroes’ Boulevard, picked up placards which they could resonate with, greeted each other or simply exchanged glances with the sundry crowd of Roma from Pata-Rat (the famous “Gypsy ghetto” near the garbage dump of the city), civil society activists, university professors and academic researchers, artists, students, and many others… The March for Social Justice began, with messages of “Stop forced evictions!”, “Decent housing for everybody!”, “For a Society without Prejudices!”, “Social Justice for the Roma” floating above our heads.

The leitmotiv of the “Super-Owl” (“Superbufniţa” in Romanian) captured the eyes of the passers-by: the fictive “Superbufniţa”, supposed to save the humanity in our hearts, was invented by Roma children from Pata-Rat and their Romanian peers from the ELF school, in a joint artistic workshop organized two days before, at the Tranzit House, an old former synagogue, now place for alternative social art and multicultural events. It was a powerful message of solidarity and claim for social justice, coming from children on different sides of the socio-economic and ethnic divide. Some of them were present at the March, along with heir parents. Continue reading ‘Marching for social justice and housing rights for the Roma from Pata-Rat, in Cluj-Napoca, Romania’

'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?’” Continue reading ‘“Allow us to live in dignity” – calling an end to forced evictions in Romania’

After a demonstration to stop the forced eviction at Dale Farm ©Susan Craig-Greene, the Advocacy Project

By Kartik Raj, Amnesty International’s UK campaigner

On Saturday, an Amnesty colleague and I visited the Irish Traveller site at Dale Farm, down a bumpy farm road outside Basildon in Essex. Hundreds of residents and supporters marched peacefully through the village of Cray’s Hill calling on Basildon Council to stop its planned forced eviction of 86 families from their homes.

Many children from Dale Farm were out on the march, taking turns on a megaphone to chant “Save Dale Farm”. One freckled, red-headed little boy was carrying a placard that seemed larger than him!

Many women we spoke to when we visited the site in April and May compared their experiences living in car parks, on common ground, and in fields, for a few months at a time to that of their children and grandchildren, who have been able to attend one primary school continuously.

For many families, this is the first generation that has completed primary school and is literate. Two sisters, in their 60s and 70s, told us how proud they were of their grandchildren having learned to read and write at school, something neither one of them had the opportunity to do.

Continue reading ‘“Sleepless nights”: Dale Farm residents live in fear of forced eviction’