Bulgarian Authorities Urged to Halt Forced Evictions of Roma

29 June 2006

International organisations call for halt to planned eviction wave in Bulgaria

Budapest, Geneva, Sofia: The Sofia Municipality in the Vazrazhdane district has announced that on 30 June 2006 it will forcibly evict Roma families from the Batalova vodenitza neighbourhood, also known as NPZ Sredetz. Many of the families have lived in this neighbourhood for almost a century and are now threatened with homelessness, as the Municipality has not offered compensation or resettlement.

Furthermore, in May 2006, vice-mayor of the Sofia City Council, Tsvetan Tsvetanov announced that all ‘illegal' Roma settlements would be ‘liquidated' and gave the mayors of Sofia municipalities 20 days to draw up a list of such settlements.

International human rights organisations, the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) and The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC), have called for a halt to the planned eviction wave of Roma in Sofia in a letter addressed to the President of Bulgaria.

COHRE Executive Director, Jean du Plessis, condemned the announcement saying, "No details were provided on the new strategy and there was no guarantee that the human rights of Roma would be respected. When a similar announcement was made in August last year, it led to devastating consequences for 24 Romani families in the Hristo Botev neighbourhood of Sofia: they lost their homes and were not provided with any resettlement."

The Batalova vodenitza neighbourhood now faces a similar fate. The families, due to be evicted tomorrow, are only entitled to one-time support in the amount of BGN 275 (approximately Euro 130). They have now filed a case with the European Court of Human Rights.

ERRC Programmes Director, Claude Cahn, condemned the approach of the authorities, "We call for an immediate stop to the planned eviction because it is an assault on a range of fundamental rights of Roma. The threatened evictions of the Romani families in Batalova vodenitza, as well as in other parts of the country, are the extreme face of the decades-long failure of the Bulgarian state to ensure the access of Roma to adequate housing."

Other communities also face impending eviction. The Municipality in Vazrazhdane has issued eviction notices to the 16 families of a different community that is also called Batalova vodenitza. Despite the community residing on this land since 1926, the families were informed on 26 June 2006 that they now have 14 days to object to notices. The Regional Directorate on Control of Illegal Constructions will then have the power to forbid the use of the buildings and cut off electricity and water supplies.

Under international human rights law, Bulgaria has clear obligations to ensure that evictions only occur in exceptional circumstances, with due process and with the provision of alternative accommodation. Bulgaria's record on upholding the housing rights of Roma is now under close scrutiny by the Strasbourg-based European Committee on Social Rights in the case of ERRC v Bulgaria.

The full text of the COHRE/ERRC letter to the Bulgarian President is available at:

For further information, contact:

• Malcolm Langford, Centre on Housing Rights & Evictions, +49 163 820 1133, mail=malcolm@cohre.org
• Savelina Danova, European Roma Rights Center, Mobile: +36 20 98 36 445, mail=savelina@errc.org