Following on his 2011 pre-electoral racist promises to segregate the romas, Catalin Chereches, the mayor of Baia Mare, a city located in the northern part of Romania, decided to build a wall around a complex of social houses on Horea Street, mostly inhabited by Romanian citizens of Roma origins.
The initiative to enclose the complex was justified in the mayor’s eyes by the bad behavior of the Roma kids who allegedly throw rocks at passing by cars and occasional traffic accidents reported in the area. The plan also includes adding video cameras and a police station to monitor the situation in the complex.
Facing media pressure, the mayor changed the initial plan that originally included only one exit, and started to build the wall on the last open side of the complex. Building walls around each community where we can find uneducated kids, regardless of their ethnicity, will bankrupt this country. The truth is this wall makes no sense other than segregate the community.
The living conditions in this social complex are so bad, roma people living in informal settlements, with applications for a proper house, dating up to 10 years back, they refuse to move on Horea 46B.
Authorities pretend to ask of the Romas to send their kids to school, but we never ask if those kids can bathe or have a decent breakfast before attending classes. As they live in totally inhumane conditions, ‘Bathing’ in itself it’s an improper word to describe how this kids manage to wash themselves. Without direct access to running water, each child or woman goes 5-6 times each day to collect water from a nearby water pump. A task like that would make even Sisyphus go crazy.
I was really scared by the cynicism of romanian authorities. On one hand they claim they are concerned by the roma kids wellbeing so they have to build this ‘protective’ wall, and on the other hand they they allow hundreds of kids to live in this social housing complex without direct access to electricity.
Without heating or electricity they live a life in conditions similar to those in the
Middle Ages. The unfortunate ones get an improvised electricity line form their neighbors. When you discover how much they pay for this bootlegged current that fuels maybe one lightbulb (20 Euro), you realize being poor doesn’t come cheap.
On many floors you can find broken banisters so walking the staircase it’s life threatening not just for a 3 years old but for all inhabitants.
600 kids of all ages live in the complex. International organizations ask of Roma parents to reach out and send their kids to school, while local authorities condemn their future by burying them alive.
