CLAUDIO MENNA

C O U N T R Y ’ S C A M P S.

Roma communities are the largest minority in the European Union but their presence in old Continent’s story is completely neglected. Not only: the persecution against the Roma people that ravaged Western Europe are widely censored, as well as their slavery in some countries in South-Eastern Europe. Similarly their strength for maintaining a distinct identity and strongly characterized is generally misunderstood and their entrenchment in many local situations is ignored or underestimated. Surrounded and lost in history and in the Europe’s geography, between other populations, the Roma have built for themselves their own identities and their ' Europe '. A geo history inscribed in modernity, but completely absent from the books that tell tale. They prefer to be called Roma, which in Roman language means "man".
And they define gagè, "the others", the rest of the world, i.e. not-Roma.
Gagio is for them a guileless, a superstitious, too much bound to material things, sometimes rough. The gagè for their part call them gypsies, thinking they are scoundrels, fools, thieves, and without a culture.
The Bosnian Roma call Italy "the land of the camps", meaning gypsy fenced camps.
They often do the begging, sometimes they steal.The run down shacks burn. Politicians and citizens demonstrate. The mayors are concerned.
In the last years in Italy the “Roma camps issue” has become a controversial topic; before of any forced eviction several humanitarian associations and organizations mobilize themselves to watch over and record every moment of these operations, as do since years Amnesty International which supervise to secure there’s any kind of abuse against the involved communities.
Often all the forced eviction in Italy not ensure to the involved people any emergency housing plan.

G i a n t u r c o R o m a Se t t l e m e n t.

In Naples the Roma communities have an history strongly settled in jurisdiction at the point that has come by now to the 3rd generations of born in Italy. Children attend the district school and camps are visited every day by any kind of seller which, although in small proportions, created a real micro economy. Geographically Roma camps belong to those abandonend and out control suburbs where it’s easy to enter in tracks and systems ruled by local criminaliy.
In the last decades Roma Camps have been turned in huge open air dumps where local crime spilled every kind of toxic trash belonging to the big north companies for which saving money is a way of growth and economic salvation. Often small companies too take a role in this process using the Roma people as executor arm (taking advantage of the economic crisis and the lack of jobs), burying or burning the stuff to drain. Result was predictable: the fires of highly toxic stuff created dangerous environmental conditions, for the Roma community and for the local citizens. It’s common in these areas the strong smell of dioxin and other stuff emanate from the arson, and it’s frequent watch biogas releases from the soil.
Physical danger and the intolerance of citizens against Roma camps leaded authorities to move on with Forced Evictions.

Never these forced eviction coincide with a clear and definite process of housing relocation for those communities homeless by now.
In Gianturco (Naples) there was am historical Roma community from Romania evicted in April 2017; during the forced eviction operations
almost 1000 people were left homeless by Authorities and Municipality. Around 1,300 Romanian Roma made Gianturco their home for years, after being repeatedly evicted from other sites or chased away from camps set alight by unknown perpetrators. As of 7 April 2017, it no longer exists; all that’s left is rubble, demolished homes, and a few toys and furniture; pieces of lives left behind. The court order for this eviction was issued in January 2016 and while the municipality did negotiate extensions of the deadline, they failed to carry out any meaningful consultation with families to explore options and identify suitable alternative accommodation for them.

Representatives of the municipality told that the Gianturco eviction is like a “natural disaster” and they are addressing an emergency situation – but Romani families had lived in Gianturco for several years, and the authorities have had more than a year to prepare for this. Around 130 people, out of the 1,300 residents, were relocated to a new segregated camp in Via del Riposo.
Romani people have described the former as a “prison”, with several families sharing one room. The latter is comprised of 27 metal containers, about 20 sqm each, shared by an average of 5 people. The sight of the camp is terrifying.

The authority’s pledges to work towards inclusion and integration rang hollow as I looked at the fences surrounding the perimeter. There is no such thing here. A guard will be present around the clock and police forces remain stationed outside. The municipality fears attacks by non-Roma and the walls around the camp stand testimony to the hatred and discrimination Roma face.
It is clear that the authorities do not have any other alternative for the families left homeless after the forced eviction. Some moved into informal settlements, others with relatives - however temporarily. Very few managed to rent a home and several are sleeping rough.