Organized visit to Roma settlement in municipality Bar

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Friday, 11 November 2016 09:40

Representatives of NGO Young Roma Samir Jaha and Jelena Topalović visited the Roma settlement Volujica in municipality Bar with the aim to discuss with the inhabitants of the settlement the conditions in which they live. The visit was organized on 11.10.2016. within the project "Joint initiative to empower Roma civil society in the Western Balkans and Turkey". Mentioned project is coordinated by the organization Roma Active Albania and ERGO Network from Brussels, and is financially supported by the European Commission.

The visit was organized in order to have insight into the situation in which they inhabitants of the settlement live, which proved to be extremely unfavorable, for several reasons. In settlement, there are eight families numbering 49 members. All of them live in extremely bad social conditions. Facilities in which they live are unconditional, made of poor materials, no bathroom nor kitchen, water is only available at one fountain, which is located near the settlement. Electricity and water they use, are being paid, even though none of the residents has employment. The source of income for these families is family allowance and of engagement in the gray economy and waste recyclable collecting. The situation is particularly unfavorable and difficult in winter days, because of the large amounts of rainfall. The courtyard where they live is often flooded. Residents are very concerned about the instability of the electricity distribution network, which often causes interruptions in the power supply because it is inadequately indented among the objects.

Residents of the village stated that they have contacted the authorities in the municipality of Bar, for help and provision of appropriate solutions for the accommodation, but as they say, they did not receive any concrete answers. The situation is particularly worrying because there live on private land and it is very likely that the owners of the land at some point will ask for eviction, what will led to situation that these eight families will be without a roof on his head.

NGO Young Roma team will appeal to the institutions and representatives of organizations working on issues of Roma integration, to visit the mentioned settlement, do needs assessment and in accordance with the findings to develop practices and solutions that contribute to improvement of the situation of the Roma inhabited at Volujica.