Another eviction of Czech Romanies ahead - press

The Novy Jicin town hall has sold houses in the three streets near the town centre inhabited by about 200 Romany tenants, the local edition of the daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) writes today.

The new owners want to completely refurbish the houses and move out most of the tenants, MfD writes.

However, the tenants, many of whom are rent-defaulters, want to defend themselves, it adds.

The town hall wants to help at least the families that regularly pay the rent. If they do not owe anything to the town hall, they will be offered accommodation in the "low-standard flats."

The Romany families want to defend themselves, arguing that they did not know that the houses were to be sold, MfD writes.

The town hall says that it announced the plan to sell the houses according to the law. It says that some of the Romanies sought their purchase, but they offered lower sums than the current owners.

Last year, Romany rent-defaulters were evicted from the North Moravian town of Vsetin under its former mayor, current Christian Democrat leader Jiri Cunek. The case caused national scandal with many protests from Romany organisations and NGOs.