Czech Republic: Last Romani families leave Ostrava's Přednádraží street

News server Novinky.cz reports that after a roughly 10-month fight to remain in one last building on Přednádraží street in Ostrava, the Romani families left there (about 20 people) have decided this week to definitely move out. Nonprofit organizations involved with them, however, do not want to give up on the matter and are considering filing a lawsuit against the role played by the authorities in the eviction process. 

"The situation is unbearable. The people are desperate, they don’t see any chance of saving their residences on Přednádraží Street. The authorities have increased their requirements for allowing people to live there. Currently we are all looking very intensively for apartments for four families from Přednádraží Street. Under no circumstances will they move into residential hotels. Once we find them apartments, they will all move out," activist Kumar Vishwanathan, the chair of the Life Together (Vzájemné soužití) association, told Novinky.cz.

Vishwanathan warned that various nonprofit organizations that have tried to assist the families from Přednádraží Street are now considering filing lawsuits against all of the official processes in which the authorities have been involved. "In our view, they proceeded unfairly in this matter and struck several blows below the belt. They did nothing but obstruct the owner of the properties and the people living in them, from the Building Works Authority of the Municipal Department of Moravská Ostrava a Přívoz to the waterworks authority," Vishwanathan emphasized.

Vishwanathan went on to say that all four families for whom the association is now seeking apartments are solid and solvent:  "Hopefully we will succeed in finding them something appropriate as soon as possible. Then we will seek housing for several single men living in building number eight on Přednádraží Street, the one the people themselves repaired."