Amnesty International/Claudio Menna
Tempo di lettura stimato: 7'
Hundreds of Roma living in the informal settlement of Gianturco in Naples, Italy, were forcibly evicted by local authorities on 7 April. Families had been told by authorities two weeks before that the eviction was scheduled for 11 April but on 6 April they were informed that the eviction was happening the next day.
Amnesty International was allowed in the cordoned off area to monitor the operation. Journalists were prevented from entering.
Of the estimated 1,300 Romanian Roma that lived in Gianturco, only 200 people, including children, elderly and sick people, were present when the forced eviction was carried out. Dozens of families had left the settlement in the weeks before in fear of being rendered homeless, as the authorities told them there would not be an alternative for all.
Repeated police checks, which intensified before 7 April amounted to harassment. The forced eviction was carried out within 4 hours. All homes were demolished and the area was sealed off. The authorities transferred around 130 people to a new segregated camp, in Via del Riposo, located where a Romani settlement was burned down by assailants in 2013.
Anti-Roma slogans had already been sprayed on the nearby walls. Amnesty witnessed people passing by in a car shouting slurs against Roma. Local authorities told researchers that police forces would remain outside the camp for a while as they fear attacks and hostility from non-Roma. A few families were offered to move to the reception centre “Grazia Deledda”, where conditions have been reported by many Roma to be inadequate, with no privacy and only communal showers and kitchen.
Amnesty has not yet been granted access to the camp in Via del Riposo or to the reception centre and is awaiting a response from authorities to a request filed on 7 April. Many families were not offered alternative housing and were rendered homeless as a result of the forced eviction. At least two families, including one with a one-year-old child, spent the last few days in their cars. A seven-month pregnant woman and a severely sick 20-year-old man slept in a train station. The whereabouts of dozens of other families are unknown.
On 11 April, in a meeting sought by Romani families and activists, local authorities said they have no alternatives for the families left homeless.
Please write immediately in Italian, English or your own language urging the authorities to:
Mayor of Naples Luigi de Magistris Comune di Napoli Palazzo San Giacomo Piazza Municipio 80133 Napoli Fax: +39 08 17955002 Email: urp@comune.napoli.it. Salutation: Dear Mayor
Minister of Interior Marco Minniti Ministero dell’Interno Piazza del Viminale 1 00184 Roma Fax: +39 06 46549832 Email: segreteriatecnica.ministro@interno.it. Salutation: Dear Minister
Dear Mayor
[Dear Minister]
Housing is a human right that all people should enjoy without discrimination! Nobody should live in fear of seeing their homes destroyed, be forcibly evicted or placed in ethnically segregated camps.
I am alarmed by the situation of 1,300 Romanian Roma, including hundreds of children, elderly, sick and disabled, living in informal settlement of Gianturco in Naples, in southern Italy, at risk of eviction by local authorities.
I am concerned that the eviction of the families from Gianturco might amount to a forced eviction, unless necessary safeguards are put in place, as requested by international and regional human rights standards that Italian authorities are bounded by at all levels. I am also concerned that the local authorities’ plan for relocation include as main option the creation of a new segregated camp in Via del Riposo currently co-funded by the municipality and the Ministry of Interior, while the remaining hundreds of adults and children are feared to be soon rendered homeless.
Forced evictions and the long term plan to transfer the families to a segregated mono-ethnic camp fly in the face of commitments undertaken by Italy in its own National Strategy for Roma Inclusion, adopted in 2012, which committed the authorities to end the segregation of Roma in camps; they also bring Italy in breach of international and regional human rights standards, including the EU Race Equality Directive.
The cycle of injustice and marginalization that Roma face in Italy must stop now. I am urging you to take the necessary actions to ensure that all people, including Roma from Gianturco settlement, are allowed to live in dignity:
I urge you to immediately:
Yours sincerely,
This is Gianturco, an informal Roma settlement in Naples in southern Italy. The municipality says 850 people live here, but the community say it’s around 1,300. © Amnesty International/Claudio Menna
Some Romani families moved here in 2011 after the camp they previously lived in was set on fire to scare them away, while other families have arrived more recently. © Amnesty International/Claudio Menna
The land where Gianturco sits is privately owned and is being reclaimed, so they have to move. A court order to evict the Roma was issued in January 2016, but many of the residents say they never received any documentation. Vasile told Amnesty International: “I don’t know where we will go. I am sick, nobody came to ask us anything. It’s useless that I shout, nobody helps me.” © Amnesty International/Claudio Menna
The municipality confirmed that only a number of residents were notified by the court. Furthermore, despite having more than a year to do so, no genuine consultation was carried out by authorities to explore and identify alternative housing options. Ionica, who has 3 children, told Amnesty International: “the municipality did not come to talk to us, neither did they come to ask who is sick, who is in need… we are not in a jungle, but they treat us as animals.” © Amnesty International/Claudio Menna
A new segregated camp is being built by the municipality here, in Via del Riposo in Naples. The camp will only house around 200 people, leaving hundreds more facing homelessness. It’s not clear how those 200 were selected. © Amnesty International/Claudio Menna
This is the welcome they can expect. Outside the Via del Riposo site, graffiti reads “No to Roma, enough”. © Amnesty International/Claudio Menna
The authorities must halt the eviction until they have genuinely consulted with the residents on alternative accommodation for all these families. Rehousing plans should provide adequate living standards and should not result in the creation of yet another segregated camp. One 26 year old woman living in Gianturco told Amnesty International: “I have six children… give us another place to stay, but we cannot be left on the streets.” © Amnesty International/Claudio Menna
Don’t make them homeless. Romani families need somewhere to live too. © Amnesty International/Claudio Menna
