Foreign embassies are showing interest in the situation at the illegal Roma settlement in the Záhorie village of Plavecký Štvrtok and the Canadian ambassador from Prague had announced her intention to visit the site but due to a change in her trip in Slovakia, it was cancelled, said Dušan Pastorek of the Canadian Embassy’s office in Bratislava last week, the Sme daily wrote.
The US Embassy is also concerned about the life of Slovak Roma, including those from Záhorie, Sme wrote on April 21. Some employees of the US embassy have been teaching English in Plavecký Štvrtok and after a serious illness was diagnosed in one of the pupils, they said they intend to have the local conditions inspected by experts on public health and to find a way to improve the lives of those residents, said the US embassy spokesperson, Chase Beamer, as quoted by Sme.
The mayor of the village, Ivan Slezák, claimed that the issue is not a racial or ethnic one, but rather is about the illegal character of the construction of houses there. The settlement is built above a high-pressure gas pipeline which could cause grave or even fatal problems in the future.
Source: Sme
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Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
