Italy Targets Its Roma Population

What is affected

	Land Social/public
	Electricity, Sewage

Type of violation

Forced eviction
Demolition/destruction

Date

01 January 2007

Region

E [ Europe ]

Country

Italy

Location

nation-wide

Affected persons

	Total 6000
	Men 0
	Women 0
	Children 0

Proposed solution

Stop eviction. Authorities provide reparation for those dispossessed, injured and killed.

Details

amnesty rpt on roma in italy.pdf
COHRE CERD rpt on roma in italy.pdf

Development

Forced eviction

Costs

Demolition/destruction

Housing losses

- Number of homes

- Total value €

Duty holder(s) /responsible party(ies)

	State
	Local guerrilla groups

Brief narrative

From COHRE report (attached): "By pattern and practice, Italian authorities regularly conducted forced evictions of Roma from their homes throughout the country. Information gathered by the submitting organizations indicates that, in many instances, affected individuals are neither provided with due process, nor with alternate accommodation and, in a number of instances, Romani victims of forced evictions have been expelled from Italy. In addition, the expulsion of Roma from Italy renders access to justice by victims in cases of abusive forced evictions effectively impossible. The submitting organisations have sent a number of letters of concern to the Italian government to express concern at such actions, but these appear to have had little impact to date on practices by Italian officials.

Since May 2007, instances of forced eviction of Roma in Italy have risen to new levels, and many of the often unauthorised “evictions” have been accompanied by the total destruction of property by executing officials. Many of the forced evictions and destruction of property have taken place in Rome, where as Mayor Walter Veltroni reported 6,000 people were forcibly evicted between January and November 2007, according to the Italian national newspaper ANSA of 6 December. By comparison, ANSA reported that in the previous 7 years, 15,000 evictions had been conducted in Rome in total – just over twice as many evictions as had been conducted in 2007 alone. Mr Veltroni was further sited as having stated that 80% of the evictions took place in unauthorised settlements occupied by immigrants – in light of the recent situation in Italy, Mr Veltroni can reasonably be presumed to be referring to Romani camps.

According to activists working on these matters in Rome, most of the affected Romani families remain in Rome in new and even more substandard conditions. A large number of the adults concerned have reportedly lost their jobs in the process and the children who were residing in the affected areas have been forced to stop attending school."

Costs

€ 0

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