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Money-lending gangs rule in Czech Romany ghettoes

22 October 2012
3 minute read

Crime, drugs, excessive money-lending and gambling, these are the evils plaguing the neighbourhoods inhabited by Czech Romanies, Marek Podlaha, head of the Agency for Social Integration of Romany Localities, tells the weekly Respekt out today.

The agency was set up in February. It will send 15 employees to six selected places in Bohemia and six in Moravia.

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The situation in the "socially excluded" localities is constantly worsening, Podlaha said about the neighbourhoods inhabited by some 80,000 people, mostly Romanies.

A peculiar system with its own rules independent from the outside world is often created there, Podlaha said.

Predlice, a neighbourhood on the outskirts of the north Bohemian town of Usti nad Labem, is a case in point, he added.

Any person coming there is immediately noticed and closely watched as are the people who meet them. As a result, locals prefer to avoid any contact with visitors as they are afraid, Podlaha said.

Unemployment in Predlice reaches the astonishing 90 percent, while almost everyone is involved in illegal work there. Locals are plagued by money-lenders who have forced them to sign extremely disadvantageous loans at exorbitant interest rates, Respekt writes.

Nine years ago, Romany clans from Moravia moved in. Their members got rich through prostitution, drug dealing and money-lending. They started buying property in Predlice, Respekt writes.

They have introduced exorbitant rents the residents are unable to pay. Hence their resort to usury, the daily describes the vicious circle.

In Predlice, a community centre will be established in which the agency will work along with the local authorities, local NGOs, a sanitary official, a social worker, a doctor and the police, Podlaha said.

"I believe that if we are in day-to-day contact with locals, we will gain their trust and they themselves will seek our help," he added.

"This will worsen the position of the mafia ruling here," Podlaha said.

"Above all, there will be some first-hand information for us," he added.

Rapid improvement can be expected in some simple problems such as sanitation, perhaps within one or two years, Podlaha said.

As far as education is concerned, a major progress can be expected within 15 years, he added.

In the case of unemployment, this may happen within ten years. However, as this is a long-distance race, it is not easy to give any accurate deadline, Podlaha said.

It may be possible to help those whose debts have not reached hundreds of thousands of crowns. If there is cooperation on the part of those affected, it may be possible to reach an agreement with the creditors and distrainers on a repayment schedule, he added.

The affected people should take part in some retraining courses and then start to work, Podlaha said.

As far as the big debtors are concerned, this will not work, they are really trapped, he added.

Some legislation may help, too. The upper part of the interest rate should be fixed, replacing the current formula "interest rate in keeping with morality," Podlaha said.

"However, I am afraid the lobbying by the firms providing rapid loans may prove much stronger than our voice," he added.

"I do not think one can find a successful solution to the social ghettoes anywhere abroad," Podlaha said.

"Moving their residents out or moving members of majority society in the excluded localities have never been successful," he added.

"I have never heard of any miraculous solution," Podlaha said.

According to earlier analyses, over 300 deprived houses, streets and neighbourhoods exist where up to 80,000 people live, mainly, Romanies, in the 10-million Czech Republic.

A majority of adults at these places are unemployed, the families live in often inappropriate conditions and they depend on social benefits. Most children attend special schools. Many of them have never seen their parents working.

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