European Roma Rights Center Letter to the Prime Minister of Spain
22 July 1999
On July 22, the European Roma Rights Center (ERRC), an international public interest law organisation which monitors the rights of Roma and provides legal defence in cases of human rights abuse, sent a letter to Mr Jose Maria Aznar, Prime Minister of Spain, to express concern at the recent eviction of approximately one thousand Romanian Romani refugees from Madrid. Copies of the letter were also sent to Mr Jaime Major Oreja, Interior Minister of Spain; Mr Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon, President of the Madrid Government; and Mr Jose Maria Alavarez del Manzano, Mayor of Madrid. The text of the letter follows:
Honourable Mr Prime Minister,
The European Roma Rights Center (ERRC), an international public interest law organisation which monitors the rights of Roma and provides legal defence in cases of human rights abuse, is concerned about the recent eviction of approximately one thousand Romanian Romani refugees from a site on which they had been living in Madrid and the treatment to which they are presently being subjected at the hands of Spanish authorities.
According to reports in the Spanish press, at around 7:00 AM on July 8, 1999, around fifty police officers evicted the approximately 100 Romanian Romani families, comprising around one thousand individuals, from the site on which they had been living in the Malmea area of the Fuencarral District of Madrid. Employees of the municipality, some of whom were driving bulldozers, also took part in the eviction. During the raid, police officers destroyed makeshift housing in which the Roma had been living. The expelled Roma were also reportedly not given adequate time to gather belongings, and many abandoned possesions at the site.
Virtually all of the Roma concerned are asylum seekers in Spain whose applications had been rejected at the first instance and for whom appeal procedures are still in progress. They had not been provided with basic accomodation or social support by Spanish authorities and were therefore living in deplorable conditions while their appeals were pending.
According to ERRC research, the Roma living in Malmea had not previously been told that they would be evicted. According to press reports, Mr Pedro Nunez Morgades, a representative of the Madrid municipality, the families "knew they had to go away". The Spanish daily El Pais reported on July 9 that police sources had stated that the Roma living in Malmea had been told that they should leave Madrid or they would be expelled from Spain. The Madrid municipality maintains that the Roma living in Malmea left "voluntarily". According to the same issue of El Pais, Ms Maria Tardon, competent for security affairs within the Madrid city administration, stated on July 10 that the raid had been a "garbage collection action" and that "marginal groups cannot be permitted to disturb the public order and to create health problems."
One group of Roma expelled from Malmea comprising approximately 120 persons reportedly fled North. At a petrol station approximately sixty kilometres outside Madrid, still on the evening of July 8, a five-year-old Romani boy named Samuel Paun was run over and killed by a truck. According to press reports, the body of the victim was repatriated to Romania the following day, July 9, along with members of his family. City officials have dismissed as "demagogy" any efforts to link the death of Samuel Paun to his eviction earlier the same day.
According to the July 10 edition of the Spanish daily El Mundo, hundreds of Roma, including pregnant women, newborn babies and the elderly, spent two nights sleeping on the streets and in various parks in Madrid. Spanish NGOs told El Mundo that members of the group were suffering hunger and dehydration and a number of children had chicken pox.
As of July 11, authorities had erected tents in an industrial area outside Madrid, along the road to San Roque. Authorities reportedly registered 280 individuals for the site, but have refused to continue registering people, although tens of additional Roma from the evicted group subsequently arrived there. Authorities have stated that they intend to settle the evicted Roma in four or five smaller groups outside the Madrid city limits. However, locals in Villaverde, one of the reported planned sites, have stated their intention to block the arrival of any of the displaced Roma.
On July 21, Mr Jaime Major Oreja, Interior Minister of Spain, answered parliamentary queries concerning the eviction of the Malmea Roma in the Spanish Chamber of Deputies. He reportedly reaffirmed that the police and municipal raid and eviction of July 8 had been a "cleaning action". He stated that the 280 Roma presently accomodated on the San Roque road were to be separated and relocated to four or five places. Mr Major Oreja reportedly stated that the Roma on the San Roque road are now "better off" than they had been in Malmea. Mr Major Oreja made no comment on the fate of the approximately seven hundred Malmea Roma not presently staying on the San Roque road.
On July 21, the ERRC visited the San Roque road settlement and documented the situation of Roma living there. The ERRC noted that there were four tents with approximately 20-25 beds per tent; the tents were evidently severely over-crowded. At least forty Roma at the site had not been registered at the site by authorities and were therefore not entitled to be housed in the tents. There was only one source of water at the site. In the entire time they had been on the site, the Roma living there had reportedly been provided with one kilo of milk and two boxes of biscuits per family, as well as two diapers per child. At the time of the ERRC visit, children were suffering from skin rashes as a result of the failure to provide enough diapers and the lack of adequate sanitary facilities. Many were also evidently sunburned. Roma stated that they had been unable to cook at the site, since they had abandoned cooking ware in Malmea. Although the Roma had reportedly been promised ambulance service, there was no ambulance at the site. The only officials present were two police officers and according to local Roma they were on 24-hour guard there. The site was entirely without public transport access into Madrid. According to ERRC information, as of July 21, those Roma from Malmea not located on the San Roque Road were dispersed in various places around Spain, with some remaining in Madrid. These Roma were not being provided for in any way by authorities.
Honourable Mr Prime Minister, the ERRC is deeply concerned that this group of Romani refugees from Romania have evidently become victims of forced migration at the hands of Spanish authorities. The ERRC notes the failure of the Spanish authorities' failure to provide them with adequate housing in the first place. Both the evictions and the present conditions in which the Roma of Malmea are being housed constitute inhuman and degrading treatment in violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) as well as Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The violent disruption of their home and family lives and their continued accomodation under deplorable conditions additionally constitutes violations of Article 8 of the ECHR. The raid is also in violation of Article 1, Protocol 1 to the ECHR, which provides that "Every natural or legal person is entitled to the peaceful enjoyment of his possessions." The relocation of the Malmea Roma to areas outside Madrid, far from where their appeal procedures are held, may violate the due process rights of the Romani refugees concerned. Efforts by authorities to distance themselves from consequences of the July 8 police raid and eviction, such as the death of Samuel Paun and the widespread suffering of persons rendered homeless, are insensitive.
Numerous international organisations, including the European Roma Rights Center, have documented the dire human rights situation of Roma in Romania; deadly pogroms occurring throughout the 1990s have resulted in the burning and beating deaths of Roma. Police brutality against Roma in Romania is endemic. Documentation of the situation of Roma in Romania is available at the ERRC internet website at errc.org. The European Roma Rights Center respectfully urges your office to ensure that Roma from Romania seeking asylum in Spain are accorded access to adequate asylum procedures and that they be provided with dignified accomodation during review of their claims. Actions by the police to evict, threaten or otherwise degrade Romani asylum seekers in Spain should be swiftly and unequivocally condemned by your office.
The ERRC additionally urges that Spanish authorities undertake thorough and impartial investigation into the actions of the Madrid police and Madrid municipality on July 8 in the Malmea area, taking into account domestic and international legal norms. Authorities who have violated the rights of Roma in the course of the raid and eviction should be suitably punished. The ERRC respectfully requests to be informed of the results of such an investigation and any disciplinary action taken.
Sincerely,
Dimitrina Petrova
Executive Director
Persons wishing to express similar concern are urged to contact
Mr Maria Aznar at: fax: (34 91) 390 07 51
