The Slovak daily Sme reports that a group of Romani people in eastern Slovakia has found themselves in an absurd situation. The Košice town hall evicted them from an illegal settlement and helped them move to the remote village of Rakúsa – where the mayor has now sent them straight back to Košice.
In October the Košice town hall began the demolition of an illegal Romani-occupied settlement in the locality of Nižné Kapustníky. The settlement was razed to the ground by the end of the month. A total of 156 people, 63 of them children, had lived there and lost their dwellings.
Most of the settlement residents were allegedly registered as permanent residents in municipalities other than Košice. The reason their settlement was demolished reportedly had to do with damage done to a hot water pipe that supplies heat to all of Košice. The Romani people left their homes after being summoned to do so more than once by local authorities.
According to the spokesperson for the Košice town hall, Martina Urik Viktorínová, the Romani people then returned to their places of permanent residency. Some of them were said to come from the districts of Poprad and Kežmark and reportedly claimed they had no way to get back there, so the Košice Transit Authority provided them a bus. A group of 17 people traveled by bus to the village of Rakúsa 120 kilometers away and disembarked in front of the municipal authority building.
Family members and relatives of one resident who has permanent residency in the Luník 9 neighborhood of Košice also moved into a building in the center of Rakúsa, allegedly against the will of the municipality and without the consent of the building’s owner. Currently 44 people are living in the building, which is in an unsuitable state.
"According to an expert affidavit, the stability of the building is a danger not only to its inhabitants, but also to those living nearby, because it is in danger of collapse," said Mayor of Rakúsa Bystrík Václav. "There are a total of three housing spaces in the whole building and no connection for a WC," he told news server Romea.cz.
Mayor Václav reportedly began investigating the circumstances by which the Romani newcomers had ended up in the village immediately after they showed up. He has communicated with the Mayor of Košice and with the Municipal Police of Košice.
"As I have managed to determine, not a one of them has permanent residency in our village. They are all residents of Košice, and that town should have taken care of them after demolishing their shanties," Mayor Václav said.
The Romani evictees’ stay in Rakúsa lasted all of two days before they were sent back to Košice on a group train ticket. They were reportedly seen off calmly, without any conflict.
"I regret to say that I see the procedure of the Košice town hall, which wanted to get rid of inconvenient people who have permanent residency there, as the arrogance, cynicism, and inconsiderateness of the strong toward the weak," Mayor Václav told the Sme daily.
"A big town treats people like garbage – and we are supposed to be the dump? Problems cannot be solved like this, at the expense of others. [SNS party leader] Kotleba, who got all that publicity [for trying to evict Romani residents from land he owns], was directly refused police assistance by the Police President even though all those slogans about civil rights and freedom were tossed around," Mayor Václav said. "Should people from Košice have to suffer the same kind of treatment without any problem? I have the feeling there is a double standard here," he told news server Romea.cz.
The Košice town hall, however, is defending its actions, saying the Romani group chose the place to which they wanted to move themselves. "Transportation to the place where they wanted to move was an act of generosity on our part. We don’t have the power to address citizens’ movements if they themselves want to move somewhere," spokesperson Viktorínová said.
The Romani residents were said to have claimed to have a relative in Rakúsa into whose home they could move. Viktorínová said they were unable to remain there because of the life-threatening nature of the situation.
