Two children injured by ceiling collapse in Czech city, is trafficking in poverty to blame?
In the late night hours of 1 January and early morning hours of 2 January, a ceiling caved in at a rental apartment occupied by a Romani family on Mahenova Street in the Předlice quarter of Ústí nad Labem. The debris buried the young family, injuring two children and sending their parents and their other sibling into shock.
Emergency rescue system units and police were called to the scene. This is not the first time something of the sort has happened in that locality.
In 2012, an entire floor collapsed in a building on Hrbovická Street in Předlice and a female tenant died beneath the debris. In 2017, an unoccupied three-storey building on Marxova Street collapsed and debris fell into the garden of the adjacent nursery school, fortunately at a time when no children were there.
The affected family has contacted the human rights activist and social worker Miroslav Brož of the Konexe organization with a request for support. “This is not the first time that something like this has happened. Fortunately, nobody died this time. There are different entrepreneurs operating in Předlice and their business model is that they’ve found a loophole in the market for exploiting the difficult situation of Romani families who have no opportunity to rent a normal apartment for a regular price outside of the so-called socially excluded locality because landlords discriminate against them, and these entrepreneurs rent Romani tenants units of the worst quality for high prices,” he told news server Romea.cz.
Brož says that very often such entrepreneurs do not maintain the properties in any way whatsoever. “Then, when there’s trouble, they don’t want to take responsibility, including financially. Some of these entrepreneurial groups cultivate friendly relationships with local politicians who protect their business interests,” he says.
“We aided the family with getting free legal aid and they informed other institutions which are able to assist. We also helped them get permission from the police to re-enter the ruined unit to retrieve their identification, most of everything else there is under the rubble,” Brož says.
The unit with the collapsed ceiling where the family used to live has been taped off by police to restrict access, and those entering do so at their own risk. The family has lost most of their property, such as clothing and the children’s school supplies, and needs complete aid.
