Serbia Marks International Roma Day

Participants will gather in downtown Belgrade and folk dance ensembles from several Serbian towns will hold a concert, while a public hearing will present the problems facing the Roma community in Serbia.

Representatives of the Roma community say that their main problems are high levels of poverty, keeping children in school and lack of personal IDs.

A strategy for the improvement of living conditions for the Roma will be discussed at the gathering.

“That is the only document that the Serbian government has adopted for the Roma national community, to see what has been implemented, how much has been done and what is planned for the next period.

"The public hearing is certainly very important for us because we will send a positive signal to the state and point to difficult position of the Roma national community,” Roma National Council President Vitomir Mihajlovic said.

On the eve of International Roma Day, Amnesty International published a report pointing to the difficult position of Roma in Serbia, and called on the government in Belgrade to stop the eviction of members of the community from illegal settlements and to provide them with adequate housing.

In its report, the international human rights watchdog voices concern over "an increasing series of forced evictions of Roma since April 2009 that has left some housed in metal containers in segregated settlements and others returned to living in poverty in southern Serbia, often to inadequate housing."

"Instead of halting forced evictions the Serbian authorities in Belgrade are carrying out more and more, driving Roma communities from their homes and forcing them to live in inadequate housing," said Sian Jones, Amnesty International's Serbia researcher.

"They must stop this practice if they are to abide by their international obligations. This includes guaranteeing Roma the right to housing provided with sanitation, within reach of public facilities and employment and secure from future forced evictions."

Since April 2009 at least seven forced evictions of informal settlements have taken place, Amnesty says in the report.
 
At the end of March 2010, 20-25 families were evicted from an informal settlement in the Èukarica area of the capital. The following month, about 38 Romani families were evicted from an informal settlement in the same area, and then subsequently sent back to southern Serbia.
 
Roma living at another site in Èukarica remain at risk of forced eviction. In October and December 2010, another 62 people were evicted from different parts of New Belgrade, the human rights organisation found.

Amnesty notes that many of the Roma evicted from their settlements are victims of the city's development plans, and say that members are the community are forced to live in informal settlements without access to basic services.

"Unable to register as citizens of Belgrade, they are often denied access to employment, social security, health care and education," Amnesty writes.

Amnesty's report is based on research carried out by the organisation in 2010 and 2011, including interviews with Roma affected by forced evictions in Belgrade, NGOs, and government and municipal officials.