By Christina Berger
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

BELGRADE, Serbia— Human rights organization Amnesty International recently called on Serbia to stop forced evictions of Roma. Amnesty International released a report detailing two years of discrimination and forced evictions where Roma were removed to housing conditions that are inadequate in many cases.

The report, Home is more than a roof over your head: Roma denied adequate housing in Serbia, details the forced evictions of at least seven settlements of Roma in the capital Belgrade beginning in April 2009. Those evicted are often removed to metal containers in segregated settlements, while others are forced to live in poverty with inadequate housing in Southern Serbia.

Amnesty estimates that about a third of Belgrade’s Roma population live in informal settlements, which lack sanitation, basic services, and even a regular supply of water. Roma are not allowed to register as citizens of Belgrade and as a result are often denied access to employment, social security, health care, and education.

Sian Jones, Amnesty International’s Serbia researcher, said, “[i]nstead of halting forced evictions the Serbian authorities in Belgrade are carrying out more and more, driving Roma communities from their homes and forcing them to live in inadequate housing.”

Amnesty International urged Serbia to comply with their international obligations by ensuring the Roma have access to housing with sanitation within a reasonable distance of public facilities and employment, as well as access to legal remedies. Amnesty has also urged Serbia to make sure the Roma in Belgrade are free from future forced evictions, mainly by developing a legal framework to prohibit forced evictions in the future.

Many of these evictions that have occurred over the last two years are a result of plan enacted by the Belgrade Assembly in 2009 to put into place large-scale infrastructure projects funded mostly by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Investment Bank. According to the Amnesty report, these plans would affect at least 50 of the 100 Roma settlements in Belgrade.

An estimated 500,000 thousand Roma live in Serbia, accounting for 7% of the Serbian population. Many Roma living in Belgrade originally fled Kosovo after the war in 1999. Others have been forcibly removed from Western European countries, after arriving there in search of work or international protection.

For more information, please see:

AP — Amnesty International urges Serbia to stop forced evictions of Roma in Belgrade — 9 April 2011

SOUTHEAST TIMES — Serbia is urged to stop forced evictions of Roma — 8 April 2011

UPI — Roma day marked by demands for rights — 8 April 2011

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL — Serbia urged to stop forced evictions of Roma — 7 April 2011