Situation of Czech Romanies moved to suburb improves - ombudsman

The situation of Romanies whom the Vsetin town hall moved from a dilapidated house in the centre of the town to container-like houses on the outskirts has improved over the last year, Czech ombudsman Otakar Motejl told CTK today.
However, the situation of Romanies whom the Vsetin town hall moved to villages elsewhere in north Moravia last year is still bad, Motejl said.

The main problems are unclear ownership and technical qualities of the houses into which they were moved, he said.
A house in Cechy pod Kosirem is totally uninhabitable, Motejl said (more here…).

The Vsetin town hall moved last year, under the previous mayor Jiri Cunek, current deputy PM (Christian Democrats, KDU-CSL), several dozens of local Romanies to devastated houses elsewhere in Moravia. The town hall bought them and the Romanies now have to return the money.

Vsetin Mayor Kvetoslava Othova said the town was willing to participate in solving the problems of the moved-out Romanies.
"We can, for example, postpone the instalments for loans," Othova said.

In addition, the Vsetin town hall is considering the construction of a new house in the Poschlo locality where Romanies at present live in container-like houses.