“Forced evictions of Romani communities and discrimination against them
continued. The “Nomad Emergency” 9a state of emergency declared in 2008 in
relation to the settlement of nomad communities in several Italian regions) was
declared unlawful by the Council of State in November 2011.”
Amnesty Annual
Report Italy 2012
Not just in the Annual Report of Amnesty International the treatment of Roma
is pointed out as a major problem. Also the Advisory Committee on the Council of
Europe Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities published
its
third opinion on Italy in May 2011. It noted an increase in racist and
xenophobic attitudes towards groups such as Roma, Muslims, migrants, refugees
and asylum-seekers. Furthermore the Committee also expressed concern that living
conditions of Romani communities had deteriorated further
These problems concerning the treatment of Roma increased since Berlusconi
declared the “Nomad emergency” in 2008, this emergency ruled unlawfully until
November 2012. Based on this the authorities in Rome designed the “Nomad Plan”.
This plan contains the closure of all unauthorized camps, and the relocation of
up to 6,000 Roma to 13 new or refurbished camps. The authorities in Italy
carried out several forced evictions, which took place without adequate notice.
Mainly they just offered temporary shelter for women and small children but in
fact those evictions made the people homeless. Furthermore even if they provided
housing, the local NGOs reported that the conditions of those new camps fell
short of international standards.
Why can’t the Italian authorities provide adequate housing? These camps isolate
them from the rest of the population. How can they get integrated if no one
gives them a chance to live a normal life? The first step would be to provide
the possibility to live in a flat. Many would be more than happy to use such an
opportunity, as some of the Roma in those camps have been on social housing
waiting lists for years. Neither such segregations nor the evictions are cheap.
One single eviction costs approximately up to 20.000 Euros. The money for those
evictions would be better spent on paying rents for Roma people.
“The answer [why they rather spend this money on evictions, lies] most likely
[…] in old prejudice[s] and preconceptions. All over Europe, Roma people are
still seen as nomads who don’t want to settle down. They are still treated as
unwanted outsiders who don’t deserve a say over their own futures. In fact, 97
percent of Italy’s around 170,000 Roma people are not nomadic, and most have
indeed settled down or are trying to. Around half are Italian nationals.” (Amnesty
Wire September/October 2012).
The Italian government is clearly violating the human rights and is not
living up to its EU member obligations under the
2000 Race Equality Directive not to discriminate because of race or
ethnicity. The European Commission is aware of these violations, not just in
Italy but through out whole Europe, and that is why they decided to take action.
In order to provide solutions for the improvement of Roma situation in Europe,
they announced that every country should provide a
national strategy for the inclusion of Roma Communities.
Italy presented such a
strategy as well. This paper is 90 pages long, and promises to respect the
human rights to integrate Roma by declaring to stop them being shut off into
isolated camps and to protect the rights of minorities. But what is actually
happening? These strategies were published in May 2012 and still today the exact
opposite is still happening in Italy.
They continue to build camps started under the ‘Nomad State of Emergency’ and
the evictions still take place. That is why the European Roma Rights Centre and
local NGOs are
urging Italy to rethink its planned evictions in particular the eviction of
the informal camp at via Dione Cassio. They are calling on the authorities to
postpone the eviction and to meet with the community to find an alternative
course of action. This eviction is again almost without any notice in advance,
they did not mention any alternative housing, and the only shelter that would be
able to host families is full.
Italy needs to stop the evictions. With those actions they do not provide
solutions but in fact create more problems and adulterate the situation of Roma.
The Italian authority promised to improve the situation, they pointed out their
strategy in their report for the European Commission but those guidelines and
promises must be followed by actions.
