Ombudswoman Jana Dubovcová sent a letter to the Košice city authority saying that Košice had no legal base or support in Slovak Constitution – nor in the Convention on Human Rights and Basic Freedoms - when it evicted Roma from the settlement in Nižné Kapustníky last October.
The letter was also sent to the SITA newswire and it criticised, among other things, also the demolition of Roma houses. However, it also concluded that for now, laws do not make it possible to order Košice to take specific measures related to the former settlement inhabitants.
It was the Budapest-based European Centre for Roma Rights (ERRC) that brough attention to the evictions of more than hundred Roma, fearing also for their further fate.
The settlement in Nižné Kapustníky formed about 10 year ago, but inhabitants were said to not live there permanently and to move between various boroughs of Košice, SITA wrote on Tuesday, July 30. A census from October 2012 found 156 people there, 63 of them children. In October 2012 authorities called on people to leave the settlement, citing danger and health issues stemming from illegal waste dumps, but this appeal was not been proven in a written or any other form. Later, the Roma were evicted, and their dwellings were levelled.
Dubovcová recommends Košice authorities take preventive measures ensuring such situations do not repeat. She also asks the city administration to inform her on the measures adopted and implemented.
(Source: SITA)
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
