Romania has signed different treaties and agreements which ensures the
respect of human rights, in which adequate housing is included. In 2001 they
adopted the Strategy for the Improvement of Roma , this was followed by an
action plan to improve housing, health, education and employment and the next
document they not just signed but even created was the National Strategy for
Roma Inclusion under the obligation of the EU Framework for National Roma
Integration Strategies up to 2020. But still the Roma are suffering from
discrimination and from the substandard living conditions.
There are some shortcomings in the Romanian legislation: there is no minimum
degree of security of tenure, so the Roma always need to fear forced evictions,
there are also no laws for this evictions, they are allowed and there are no
procedure that needs to be followed. Furthermore it is not prohibited to
resettle the victims of the forced eviction to unsafe and/ or polluted areas.
Public housings can be built in areas with no access to employment, social
services and schools as well as segregation is not prohibited either. The
government is also not obliged to guarantee a minimum of standards in relation
to provision of services and infrastructure. This gives the Romanian government
the freedom to do whatever they want and this hits the Roma the hardest. The
eviction of the Coastei Street in Romania brought up and showed better than any
other those grievances.
Eviction of Coastei Street
In December 2012 the ERRC published its report on the Romanian Roma eviction
to a rubbish dump. On the 17th December of 2010 the Romanian government evicted
270 people from the Coastei Street in the centre of Cluj-Napoca, even though it
is forbidden by the Romanian law to carry out eviction during winter. The
families living there just got the notice one day before they were evicted from
the homes, in which they were living for 20 years. They were sent to Pata Rât
which is located right next to the municipal landfill and dump. It is still
operating, despite its official ‘closing’ because it could not comply with the
EU waste management obligations.
The authorities said that this housing would just be a temporary
accommodation but now two years have passed and still nothing has changed. It is
highly inappropriate to call it a ‘temporary’ solution and even if it would be
those conditions would not be acceptable even for one day. They need to respond
as the housings do not fulfil human rights standards and they are located in a
polluted and unsafe area. The people were living in a well-integrated community
before and they have to face now discrimination in various ways, as well as the
environment, in which they have to live, is threatening their health.
The ERRC is summing up its major findings in terms of housing conditions,
employment, education and health. Since the eviction the space per person has
dropped, in Pata Rât the average square meters per person are 4,01 which is
lower then the average space for an Romanian family. By law, a family that
consists out of four persons has the right for a social housing apartment that
has at least 115 square meters. Furthermore mould is present in over 90% of the
houses and 89% do not have adequate cooking facilities. The biggest human rights
violation in terms of housing, is that no home has a water connection and 11
homes are even without electricity.
But the people also suffer from unemployment. The average income has fallen
by 30% since the eviction and almost the same percentage had a job before the
eviction but is now out of work, this includes as well that the overall
unemployment has increased from 20% to 49%.
The children are facing big obstacles since the eviction to Pata Rât. In
contratry to their homes at Coastei Street, they are now far away from the
centre and need to go by public transport, while before everything was in
walking distance. The problem is first that the bus is very expensive and it is
difficult to pay for it every day and second the bus is just going twice per
day, so it leaves at 7 in the morning and goes back at 2 pm. This means that if
the children have classes in the afternoon, they simply cannot go because they
would not be able to return to their home. Additionally since they live in Pata
Rât the children reported an increase of racist remarks at school. 14 children
were even refused admission to their school after the eviction, and 10% were
placed in special education for pupils with mild mental disabilities.
Because of all this discrimination and disadvantages that they have to face
because they live there, the most people do not want to change their address to
Pata Rât. This would cause them more problems. As a result more than 50% do not
have a national ID for their new address. But without this, they miss out on
benefits like public health insurance and therefore they go less often to the
doctor which explains the increases of emergency calls. This directly leads to
another problem.
The ambulances do not want to go to Pata Rât. The average waiting time is
about 92 minutes in comparison to 11 minutes in the Coastei Street. The
differences are clear and the waiting time also shows that it is an
inappropriate response in an emergency. Sometimes they did not even respond at
all or they had to wait between 2.5 and 3 hours until the ambulance was
arriving. Furthermore, because they are living next to the landfill and because
of the mould in the houses, the residents who report some physical illness have
increased by 14% since the eviction.
The need to change this situation for the people who live in Pata Rât is
urgent. These living conditions are violating the human rights of the people
living in this area. It is obvious and proved that the victims of the eviction
are much worse off since they got evicted. This problem cannot be ignored by the
Romanian government and needs to be changed immediately, as they do not fulfil
any of their obligations for respecting the rights of human beings.
NGOs are reacting on those horrifying conditions
Already in May 2012 Amnesty International wrote a report about the situation
in Pata Rât. They pointed out the weak legislation about eviction, that there
are not any rules for the procedure and how to act after an eviction. They
explained how ‘good’ the situation was when they were still living in the
Coastei Street and the difficulties that they are facing now. Amnesty called on
the government to act now and recommended what steps should be taken but nothing
changed.
That is why in February 2012 Amnesty International, the European Roma Rights
Centre and the Foundation Desire wrote a briefing to the Romanian Government.
They were urging the government to provide adequate housing with regard to the
marginalized Romani communities. The aim of this briefing is to provide the
Romanian government with information which consists of details, like they were
mentioned already above in the ERRC report, about the forced eviction of Coastei
Street and their relocation to Pata Rât.
Then they sum up the current legal and policy gaps that allowed the forced
eviction and the relocation to inadequate housing to occur. For example they
criticise that the protection of right to adequate housing without
discrimination was inadequately transposed into Romanian legislation, as it does
not guarantee security of tenure for all but just for those who have a formal
tenure status. The Romanian government still fails to implement progressive EU
housing policies and strategies, as well as there is lack of access to remedies
for Roma against violations of their human rights.
Furthermore they provide information about ongoing Pata Rât-related projects
in the city of Cluj-Napoca and recommendations to local authorities. Since 2012
The United Nations Development Program has provided technical assistance to the
mayor’s office in Cluj-Napoca which had as a goal to establish a housing pilot
project to get the Roma out of Pata Rât. They call on the authorities to promote
this project and that the people who live in Pata Rât will receive adequate
remedies for the range of human rights violations they had to suffer.
And they want to assist with legal and policy recommendations to ensure
compliance with Romania’s international obligations. This includes that the
Romanian government needs to ensure that legal security for tenure is provided
for everyone, that housing is affordable and adequate and last but not least
that they need to implement effective mechanisms for monitoring all authorities
so that those act consistently with these legal provisions.
The Romanian government is not left alone. They are provided with help and
assistance and they get a lot of reasonable and realizable recommendations on
how to change this situation but so for it seems there are just unwilling to do
so. They cannot continue to sign treaties and set up National Strategy for Roma
Inclusion, this needs to be followed by actions. If the Romanian government
simply ignores the violation of human rights, then the international community,
starting with the EU, should increase the pressure and threaten to implement
sanctions against Romania. I do not see any other way how they would finally act
and change the situation for Roma.
