Romani houses to be demolished in Spain

05 December 2000

On November 10, 2000, actions by concerned Romani and non-Romani individuals in the Municipality of Carballo, in the Coruna region of Galicia, northwest Spain, temporarily succeeded in blocking the destruction of seven Romani homes by municipal authorities. The Municipality of Carballo had issued a decision that on November 10, seven Romani houses, one a stone house and the rest shanties, were to be demolished, as they were built without licenses. The land on which the houses are built belong to the Roma. The shacks are home to 31 Roma, including 18 children. Several of the children have been ill (one girl was schizophrenic, one boy scheduled for surgery, and two children had serious skin problems due to lack of sanitation), and three women were pregnant as of November 10. If their houses were destroyed these families would be left in the street without any kind of social assistance, despite having resided in Carballo for approximately sixteen years.

On the morning of November 10, a large crowd gathered at the Romani houses including numerous police officers, press, and construction workers with power shovels to tear down the houses. The Romani families and supportive non-Romani activists planned to refuse to leave the shanties. Action by a local lawyer managed to temporarily stop the demolition due to a small legal defect in the municipality's demolition order. Due to pressure by the family and the community, the municipality met the families and agreed to delay the demolishion in order to look for a solution to their housing problems. As of December 11, activists hoped to secure guarantees of alternate housing for the Romani families from the municipality. In general, the living conditions of Roma in the area are poor. They usually live from selling scrap metal or other second hand items.

(Solidarity Campaigners)