The British newspaper The Daily Mail has sharply criticized the living conditions of Romani people in Slovakia’s second-largest city, Košice, which was also chosen by the EU to be this year’s "European Capital of Culture". The paper reports that the town won more than GBP 51 million worth of grants as a result of the designation and asks why "Romani children are still living in such horrible squalor" there. (For the original article, see (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2486333/Kosice-won-51million-grants-named-Europes-Capital-Culture–thousands-Roma-children-living-slums.html).
The daily reports that Košice amassed that large sum of money to improve its infrastructure and revive tourism. According to the paper, the current reality is still that of the "heartbreaking pictures" of the Luník IX suburb, where about 8 0000 Romani people live, including many children who play in the garbage-strewn areas between the dirty buildings in which they live.
The paper also points out that many families there have no electricity, gas, or water. Practically all of the inhabitants of the area are unemployed.
According to some reports, the accumulation of garbage in the Romani suburb has resulted in serious contamination of local water sources, a problem that is starting to impact the rest of the city. The article features many telling photographs and reminds readers that the campus of the housing estate, more than 100 hectares in area, was originally designed for 2 500 residents, but the number of people living there more than tripled due to the demolition of an adjacent housing estate, also occupied by Romani people, back in 1979.
