US embassy and rights groups condemn mayor’s pledge to demolish Roma homes built without planning permission.
“My plan is perfectly legal as the Roma built these homes without any compliance with the law,” the Mayor said on Thursday.
“The measure will apply to several hundred persons who do not have identity documents and a registered residence in Baia Mare,” Chereches added. “Nobody should be telling me not to obey the law.”
The US embassy in Bucharest and several non-governmental organisations, including Amnesty International, have expressed dismay.
US Ambassador Mark Gitenstein said that the Roma families had not been notified of the planned demolition work, due to start on September 5, and the plan to evict them disregarded due health and safety concerns.
“We echo the sentiments expressed by Amnesty International and others who declared that these evictions and demolitions should not be carried out,” the ambassador said.
On Wednesday, Amnesty International issued a press release saying that, “Once again, Romanian authorities are openly discriminating against members of the Romani community.
“When the authorities evict Romani communities against their will, without proper consultation, notice or alternative housing, they are violating international treaties that the government of Romania has signed up to,” Jezerca Tigani, Amnesty’s deputy director for Europe said.
Chereches reacted on Thursday, saying that both the US embassy and the rights groups had been “misinformed” and he condemned an “unacceptable attempt to put pressure on local authorities”.
In June, Chereches sparked controversy when he ordered the construction of a three-metre-high, 100-metre-long fence around blocks of flats where Roma live in the town.
The measure was officially to protect children against traffic accidents, but some saw it as part of a policy of enforced ghetto-ization.
The Roma community in Romania is struggling with discrimination, poor literacy rates and massive unemployment. It officially numbers around 550,000 in the country of 21 million, but it is widely believed that there are actually at least twice that many Roma in the country.
Many people of Roma origin do not declare their ethnicity in censuses due to the widespread prejudice that they face.
Roma rarely own land and property and they are further disadvantaged by lack of social housing in a country where 97 per cent of housing is now private.
Link: http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/romanian-plan-to-evict-roma-stirs-protests
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