Zigeuner
Roma in Sulukule - Istanbul

5:16 Min., n-tv - auslandsreport, 18.11.2006

Rights activists say Turkish Roma face continuing problems with access to education, healthcare and housing. In Istanbul, according to a 2003 report by the European Roma Rights Center, a municipal housing project built a few years ago in a Roma neighborhood was surrounded by a two-meter (six foot) high wall, cutting the residents off from their non-Roma neighbors. Still, even this was an improvement over many of the Roma neighborhoods in Istanbul and other cities, which are often filled with rundown shacks and dilapidated homes built out of scavenged materials.

On 21 September 2006, the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC), acting in partnership with Turkey-based civil society organizations – the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly, Accessible Life Foundation, Sulukule Romani Culture, Solidarity and Development Association, and EDROM, sent a letter to the Prime Minister of Turkey calling for the Prime Minister’s urgent attention and interference to halt the ongoing execution of forced evictions of Romani communities until a reasonable solution to the housing situation of the affected families is found.

On the basis of an ongoing monitoring of the situation in several neighbourhoods in Istanbul with large numbers of Romani residents, the organisations noted that forced evictions of Roma have been carried out in gross violation of Turkey’s obligations under international human rights law. Hundreds of Romani individuals have been exposed to homelessness and extremely substandard conditions, lacking basic sanitary and hygiene necessities. In some instances police used pepper spray against Romani individuals, including women and children.

The victims of the forced evictions carried out in Istanbul and elsewhere in Turkey are also threatened with deprivation of other basic rights. According to reports, in some instances, Romani children of evicted families have had problems enrolling at school due to the refusal by local authorities to provide them with residence certificates.