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[size=75:182a4v2p]Sofia echo 14 January 2010

Roma ghetto in Bourgas flattened


Bourgas Municipality has ordered the Roma ghetto in the city's Slaveikov borough razed, and the Roma dispersed from the site, Dnevnik daily said on January 14 2010.

The Roma site, which currently consists of about 20 shacks and other "
shelters"
, is close to a major railway junction.

On January 14, bulldozers flattened five barracks, and the occupants of the remaining 15 or so shelters were told to collect their belongings and clear out by January 15, when the bulldozers will return.

Most of the Roma in the camp site are from different municipalities in Bulgaria.

Last year, more than 30 sheds were cleared by the municipality, after a Roma camp site suddenly arose in the same area. At the time, a small girl had died after being hit by a passing train. Authorities say that Roma children and their "
domestic pets"
had been playing and roaming close to the railway lines.

"
We are trying to get the message across clearly, that every time illegal construction takes place here, it will be destroyed and cleared. We will not allow roaming Roma here,"
Bourgas mayor Dimitar Nikolov was quoted as saying by Dnevnik


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Ah Willow you are such a little darling!!! thanks for that

Oddy

[size=75:8njwikaf]Sofia echo 18 February 2010

Slovak town raises concrete wall around Roma ghetto - report

A 2.2-metre wall built with public funds separates the Slovak town of Ostrovany, separating two thirds of the population, who are Roma, from the rest, the Times on London said on February 18.

"
Nobody told us that this was happening — they just came one day and started building,"
the daily quoted one of the town's Roma residents, Peter Kaleja, as saying. "
The mayor should not have spent that money on the wall, but should have built houses for us."


Regardless of the outrage emanating from human rights activists or the Roma who found themselves in a concrete exile, local authorities said that the extreme measure was necessary "
to protect householders whose gardens back on to the Roma settlement and who complain that their fruit is frequently stolen"
.

The accusation is that the Roma "
huts"
were constructed illegally in the area, and thus the local population fell victims frequently to looting and theft.

Illegal Roma huts and spawning ghettos are no isolated to Slovakia alone. On January 14, 2010, the Bourgas Municipality in Bulgaria ordered one such Roma ghetto in the city's Slaveikov borough razed, and the Roma dispersed from the site.

The Roma site, which at the time consisted of some 20 shacks and other "
shelters"
, was perched in immediate proximity to a major railway junction.

On January 14, bulldozers flattened five barracks, and the occupants of the remaining 15 or so shelters were told to collect their belongings and clear out by January 15, when the bulldozers returned and cleared the rest of the perimeter.

The Bourgas municipality has a similar problem in the summer of 2009, when 30 sheds were cleared by authorities after a Roma camp site suddenly arose in the same area. At the time, a small girl had died after being hit by a passing train.

"
We are trying to get the message across clearly, that every time illegal construction takes place here, it will be destroyed and cleared. We will not allow roaming Roma here,"
Bourgas mayor Dimitar Nikolov was quoted as saying by Dnevnik

But the concrete wall in Slovakia has raised other concerns. It sent a powerful message of exclusion, said Stanislav Daniel, of the European Roma Rights Centre, quoted by the Times.

"
It has a very high symbolic value. We would not object to the owners building their own wall and paying for it. But this is the first time that a municipality in Slovakia is using public money to protect the private property of a few people.

[size=75:p0e77049]novinite 28 March 2010

Bulgaria Vrabnitsa Illegal Ghetto Condemned to Demolition

ofia municipality has announced that it will demolish an illegal ghetto after Easter.

Angel Dzambazki, head of the Municipal Committee on Public Order and Security, has issued the order for removal of the illegal settlement near the "
Obelya"
metro station.

The ghetto has sprung up on municipal land in Sofia's “Vrabnitsa"
quarter. A police check had revealed that 147 people were all registered at a single address, 77 at another, and 44 at a third.

Local residents had organized a petition protesting at the illegal settlement, and gathered over 1 100 signatures in support of demolition.

Vrabnitsa quarter is on the western side of Sofia. It has a population of over 47 000, and includes the neighbourhoods of Moderno Predgradie (Modern Suburb), Vrabnitsa itself and Obelia.

Having read all the posts on this topic, it is plain to see that it is a very emotive subject.

So lets take all the names out of the equation. So no Gipsy, Roma Pikey or anything else.

Lets just say that we are all equal providing we all stay within the bounds of common law. That is law that is agreed by one & all of the community. That means that we all should pay for what we use and to quote the famous book thou shalt not steal, or beg etc etc. Also a fair days pay for a fairs days work. Would you work like some of these people for less than 2.50p a day.

[size=75:72wbxiuq]Sofia echo 6 April 2010

Roma ghetto in Sofia to be razed

A Roma ghetto in the Sofia borough of Vrubnitsa will be razed as part of a "
spring clean-up operation"
in the capital, the private Bulgarian television channel BTV reported on April 6.

The ghetto, consisting of barracks, sheds and other illegal constructions, is perched on municipal land. Citizens of Vrubnitsa signed a petition in January 2010 demanding that the Roma be expelled from the site.

As a consequence of the awareness raised from the petition, municipal authorities decided that the area should be cleared, and within days.

Some of the buildings have already been flattened, mostly by the Roma themselves who decided to take the initiative once they realised that the decision was final.

The ghetto will be razed at the cost of 40 000 leva to be covered by taxpayers, BTV said.

On January 14, 2010, Bourgas municipality had ordered a Roma ghetto in the city's Slaveikov borough razed.

The Roma site, which at the time consisted of about 20 shacks and other "
shelters"
, was near a major railway junction. Bulldozers arrived and flattened the buildings in the perimeter while the Roma were expelled.

Once again we beg to differ willowsend.

'So as far as the Roma's in Bulgaria are concerned, live and let live, don't hurt us and we won't hurt you '

We never hurt them but they tried to steal our car.

Our friends have not hurt them but they broke into their house.

That's why we have alarms because we do not trust them and never will.

As Fletch said they were given decent dwellings and they stripped them. You have to earn trust.

[size=75:ufk0rba3]novinite 8 April 2010

Bulgaria Marks International Roma Day

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April 8, the International Day of the Roma, is a day of celebration of Roma culture, history and traditions. The Day also draws attention to discrimination directed to Roma and Gypsy communities globally and calls for all human rights to be respected and observed.

The day was officially declared in 1990 in Serock, Poland, the site of the fourth World Romani Congress of the International Romani Union (IRU), in honor of the first major international meeting of Romani representatives, 7-12 of April, 1971 in Chelsfieldnear London.

On Wednesday, the European Commission issued a special statement urging all EU members to intensify the social inclusion of Roma and use EU funds for their social and economic integration, their access to jobs and non-segregated education, housing and health services.

“Roma communities, the European Union’s largest ethnic minority, continue to face persistent discrimination and segregation…The integration of the estimated 10 to 12 million Roma – a population as large as Belgium’s or Greece’s – is a joint responsibility of Member States and EU institutions,” the statement reads

The EC points out that although the situation of many of Europe's Roma people remains difficult, important progress has been made at EU and national levels. The Commission has launched legal proceedings against 24 Member States to make sure that EU anti-discrimination law on the grounds of race is correctly transposed into national legislation. Out of these cases, 12 are still open while 12 were successfully concluded.

The Communication and progress report will be discussed at the second European Roma Summit, held in Córdoba, Spain on April8-9, organized with the Spanish EU Presidency.

Many Roma communities all over Bulgaria mark April 8 with festivals, dance performances, concerts and tournaments, held in a number of Bulgarian cities and towns.

The most wide-spread theory is that Roma first came to Bulgaria around the 11th-12th century through the Byzantine Empire. The mass influx of Roma, however, begins with the Ottoman rule, when many Roma arrive in the footsteps of the Turkish army.

[size=75:3aczzz8t]novinite 8 April 2010

Few Bulgarian Roma Make It Through High School


Only about 13% of Bulgaria’s adult Roma population have graduated from high school, according to a World Bank report.

The Permanent Representative of the World Bank in Bulgaria, Florian Fichtl, presented the findings of the report during a conference dedicated to the International Roma Day, April 8.

The figure is striking compared with the fact that over 90% of the other Bulgarian citizens have high school diplomas.

Fichtl has also pointed out that the employment among Bulgarian Roma is 13%-29% lower than among the other communities in Bulgaria.

He stressed that the situation is similar all around Europe – the majority of the adult Roma do not have good education which prevents them from participating effectively in the labor market. This in turn leads to losses of hundreds of millions of euro for the respective state budget.

The World Bank has estimated the losses for the Bulgarian state budget from the low productivity and insufficient inclusion of the Roma in the labor market at EUR 526 M.

The respective figure for Romania is EUR 887 M, for Serbia – EUR 231 M, for the Czech Republic – EUR 367 M.