Slovakia violates Romanies' right to housing - NGO

An additional investment of several hundred million crowns in Romanies’ education, retraining and better housing annually would start to return to the state within 15 years, representatives of the Dzeno Romany association say in a material CTK has at its disposal.

Dzeno claims that the higher investment would bring Romanies’ situation to a level comparable with that of other inhabitants of the Czech Republic in 30 years.

Dzeno chairman Ivan Vesely says that if Romanies had better education, they would have better opportunities to find work, would not need social benefits and would pay taxes.

He said the postponing of a solution to the issue only raises the sum that will have eventually to be paid to redress the situation.
A lot of money was spent on programmes for Romanies, but it was not efficiently used, according to a report on the state of the Romany communities.

According to an analysis of 2006, there are more than 300 deprived houses, streets and neighbourhoods in which mainly Romanies live. Their number is put at up to 80,000.

A new agency against social exclusion is to be launched in January. According to its plans billions of crowns could be invested in Romany projects by 2013, including money from European funds.

According to Dzeno’s study, about two billion crowns would be spent annually on Romanies’s integration in the first years.
Dzeno says an essential condition of Romanies’ integration is fighting against the emergence of new ghettos and the extension of the existing ones.

Vesely said that if the situation does not start to be tackled, there will be the danger of "a social explosion."

Street workers could help solve the situation, Dzeno says and adds that their activities would require 80 million crowns annually.
Dzeno says the state should make a one-off investment of six billion crowns in social housing that is non-existent in the Czech Republic.