Romani Families Face Winter-Time Forced Evictions in Slovenia
11 March 2005
In December 2004, Mr Rajko Sajnovi, a Romani activist from the town of Novo Mesto in Slovenia's Dolenjsko region, informed the ERRC that at least three Romani families in Novo Mesto had been served eviction orders. According to the eviction orders, by December 30 the families of Milica and Darko Tudija, Robi and Nataša Petruša and Rudi and Zorica Brajgi were to demolish their homes at their own expense and leave the plot of land on which their homes were located. The families had been living lived at the location for about three years. The eviction orders allegedly stated that the families had built their houses without authorisation from the municipality and without observing construction regulations. According to the information received by the ERRC, the families faced homeless in the middle of winter as the municipality had not offered alternative accommodation. According to Mr Sajnovi, about ten other Romani families were threatened with forced evictions by municipal authorities. Romani families from the settlements in Senkienci and Skocijan also faced forced eviction from the municipally owned land they occupied without proper authorization; reportedly, municipal authorities had not offered alternative accommodation to the families.
On December 8, 2004, the ERRC sent a letter to the Slovene Minister of Labour, Family and Social Affairs, the Minister of Environment and Spatial Planning and the Mayor of Novo Mesto, requesting that Slovene authorities stop the impending evictions and consult with the affected Romani families to reach a durable solution. On January 26, 2005, Mr Sajnovi informed the ERRC that the evictions had not yet been executed and that the families were seeking a legal solution to their housing situation. During an ERRC field mission at the beginning of February 2005 it was revealed that the evictions had been postponed. For further information on the human rights situation of Roma in Slovenia, visit the ERRC's Internet website at http://errc.org, enter "Slovenia" into the "country" box of the search engine and click "enter".
(ERRC)
