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Director of Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion in Roma Localities: Ghettos rising

22 October 2012
3 minute read

The number of impoverished localities in the Czech Republic has increased in recent years. While five years ago an analysis identified roughly 330 so-called excluded localities or ghettos throughout the country, now experts estimate there could be as many as 400. Martin Šimáček, director of the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion in Roma Localities, told the Czech Press Agency about the new estimates today. In his view, one reason is the forced eviction of debtors and a lack of social housing. The Agency itself was set up to assist with addressing the situation.

“We know from our fieldwork that at a minimum, dozens of impoverished localities have sprung up recently. The professional estimate of the overall number is around 400,” Šimáček said, adding that new research could map the situation.

According to a 2006 analysis commissioned by the Czech Labor Ministry, there were more than 300 impoverished neighborhoods in the Czech Republic. Mostly Roma people live in these ghettos, which were estimated to house as many as 80 000 people total. The majority of adults in these localities are unemployed. Welfare-dependent families become easily indebted. Children from these localities end up in “special schools”.

According to Šimáček, these impoverished localities have mainly sprung up in small villages and towns “in poor regions”. Such localities are less frequent in richer regions because of forced evictions. “The situation has slightly deteriorated, particularly in the regions into which indebted, poor people are being forcibly moved. A parallel apartment market has sprung up in these poorer regions of hostels operated by people exploiting the fact that many poor people, Roma in particular, cannot access any other housing,” the agency head said.

The Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion has been in operation since 2008. Its advisers have worked in 23 towns and villages so far. As of mid-year the Agency was scheduled to leave its first 12 localities after three years of work there, but will remain a year and a half longer in six of them. As of July it will work in another 10 localities bringing together people from labor offices, nonprofits, the police and schools in order to jump-start collaboration. Together these stakeholders design a plan of steps to take to improve the situation. Such measures concern education, employment, housing and security.

Šimáček says the Agency was not effective “during at least the first year” of its operations at fostering the inclusion of people from the ghettos. Gradually, however, the collaborations of locals that have been sparked are said to have started working and integration projects have been created. According to Czech Government Human Rights Commissioner Monika Šimůnková, the Agency now “is the only government tool against social exclusion”. In the individual towns and villages where it operates, systematic work has begun on creating social enterprises, social housing, and establishing teaching assistant positions at local elementary schools.

The Agency is working in the towns of Teplá and Toužim in the Karlovy Vary region, among others, where it collaborates with the Český západ association. “I never graduated from ninth grade, so they wouldn’t even let me sign up for a re-qualification course to become a maid. Thanks to Český západ I completed the ninth grade and then took other re-qualification courses and trainings. Now I can work with children, which has always been my dream,” Klára Berkyová of Dobrá Voda in the Karlovy Vary region told the Czech Press Agency. In her view the situation in her neighborhood has changed for the better. In the apartment building where she lives people are maintaining order and only two tenants don’t have work. Relations have improved with their neighbors.

The Agency also has its critics. Some say, for example, that it is not clear how many Roma people it has really helped join mainstream society.

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