For the 12 Million Roma, Europe is the Third World

The order to leave came unexpectedly, with residents given only 20 minutes to abandon their homes and much of their belongings.

“They came with trucks and police cars,” one of the victims from the informal Gazela Bridge settlement in Belgrade, Serbia told Amnesty International. Sadly, when the Roma families — also commonly known as Gypsies — were forcibly, hastily evicted that day in August 2009, their case was hardly unusual.

There are roughly 147 informal settlements in Belgrade alone. While the Gypsy population in Serbia faces severe discrimination, those who live in settlements like Gazela suffer the most. Their lack of legal addresses means they don’t have residence permits. Without such permits, they can’t access health care and education. Many children don’t go to school, and can’t seek employment as adults.

The Roma people are among  the most persecuted minorities in the world. So much so that there is even a term — Antiziganism — to describe the kind of racism they face. Yet we don’t hear much about their plight, despite the fact that an overwhelming majority of the estimated 12 million Roma live in abject poverty, spread across the not-so-poor European Union. And it isn’t like they arrived yesterday, either. The Roma people have been on the continent for at least 500 years.

As for the former residents of Gazela, many were relocated to the outskirts of Belgrade, where they were given metal containers to serve as homes. Far from the Belgrade’s center, their new location doesn’t provide the same opportunities for work. Still, they were the lucky ones. Others were simply driven on buses away to southern Serbia, hours away from the capital. Though some families have managed to return to Belgrade, they're living in shacks.

In these uncertain economic times, crimes against the Roma seem to have gotten worse. Their homes have been attacked by Molotov cocktails in Hungary, while an entire settlement was burned to the ground in Italy. A European Union agency has found that the 12 million Roma within its borders are the favored targets of bigots across the continent.

It is ironic and especially sad that the Belgrade evictions happened ahead of a planned upgrade of the Gazela Bridge — a project funded by a 77 million euro loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Investment Bank. The loan was apparently approved under the stipulation that the Roma residents in the area receive “adequate alternative housing.” But the unfulfilled loan conditions haven’t stopped the project from proceeding.

Meanwhile, out of the limelight, the Roma people continue the search for stable, sufficient homes.

Photo Credit: lanchutt