escenic (original) (raw)

As ruler of Romania's dynamic second city, Emil Boc has little call to spend time on the sprawling chemical waste dump on the edge of his town.

A desolate, filthy spot above Cluj, it is not a place to attract the attention of ambitious politicians like Mr Boc - a former prime minister, who some say could be aiming for the presidency this year.

Florin Stancu and his wife Emilia in their home on the Pata Rat chemical waste dump (Harriet Alexander)

But if he did ever venture to visit the Roma community that has been forcibly rehoused there - thought to be the only such "rubbish dump ghetto" in Europe - Florin Stancu knows exactly what he would say to him.

"I would speak to him in Biblical terms," said Mr Stancu, 40. "I would tell him that we are all created the same, from Adam and Eve. We shouldn't be discriminated against.

"If he wanted to exterminate us by bringing us here, then he may as well have put us on a train and taken us to a camp."

Mr Stancu's family is one of 76 who were evicted from their homes in the centre and relocated to one-room structures on the Pata Rat dump. There are no roads, so the mud is pervasive - but there is only one communal shower block for 356 people, and initially no toilets in the homes. Children complain of breathing problems; arriving at school, they are forced to stand outside and wash the mud off their clothes, leading to inevitable taunts.

Mr Boc's government says their previous homes needed to be bulldozed to make space for a park and a Church, and that the only land available to rehouse them was the dump. He says their race had nothing to do with the decision, which was made while he was prime minister and his now-disgraced right-hand man, Sorin Apostu, was in charge of the city of 300,000.

But since the evictions three years ago, there are no Roma communities left in the centre of this pretty university city.

Human rights campaigners call for Mr Boc to allow the Roma to return. And, unbeknown to Mr Stancu, they are now hoping to appeal to the Christian conscience of this deeply-religious politician.

Senior religious leaders from across the UK - among them the Archbishop of Wales, the Bishops of Manchester and Salisbury and the Rabbi of Westminster - have joined forces to plead with Mr Boc to end the segregation.

"As a man of faith yourself, we urge you to realise the lack of humanity in these actions and take steps to rebuild relationships with the Roma community in your city," they said in an open letter, organised by Amnesty International and sent to Mr Boc.

The Bishop of St Albans, Dr Alan Smith, also tabled a question in the House of Lords. He was told by Baroness Warsi's office that the British embassy was closely monitoring the situation, and had raised the issue with the government during a visit to Cluj on February 11.

"The Church is one of those institutions that can usefully speak up about this," said Arun Kataria, spokesman for the Bishop.

"He felt very strongly about the issue and thought it was right to draw attention to it."

For centuries the Roma people, the largest ethnic minority in Europe, have been society's scapegoats. The Nazis sent 1.5 million to concentration camps; last month a French MP was fined €3,000 (£2,500) for suggesting Hitler did not kill enough.

Romania has the second-largest number of people who describe their ethnicity as Roma, after Turkey, which has 2.75 million. And forced evictions have taken place across the country - in Baia Mare, Piatra Neamt and, in September, in Eforie South.

*Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

Bulgaria has the largest proportion - 10pc of their population are ethically Roma - and an estimated 200,000 live in Britain.

In Western Europe, Spain has the largest number, with up to 750,000 Roma residents.

But among Western nations it is France which has pursued the most active policy and controversial policy of evictions.

The country has faced mounting criticism over its treatment of the Roma minority, having evicted a record 19,380 members of the community from camps in 2013.

"We've always been society's rubbish," said Mr Stancu, who every summer works in Italy as a construction manager. "The difference is that here we actually live on the dump."

Last month, in unprecedented legal victory, a Romanian court ruled that every person who was forcibly evicted from Coastei Street should receive €2,000 compensation and be provided with adequate housing.

Mr Boc's government is appealing.

And inside the town hall, Oana Buzatu, spokesperson for Mr Boc, has little time for accusations that the government is racist.

"We are far more tolerant than you guys," she said. "The children get free buses to school. Before they were living in slums anyway.

"When they were moved to Pata Rat, it wasn't that the land was bad and no one wanted to live there. It was just the only available area."

Mrs Buzatu said that the government, with its €257m annual budget, spends a third on social projects, and was looking for solutions to the housing shortage. She said several families moved from Pata Rat into council houses each year.

"We don't see the Roma as a separate problem. They're just people who need our help."

Even Rotherham Council is involved - having signed partnership agreements with the town, they have sent delegations to advise on how to include Roma in the workforce.

"We have similar experience of employability issues, given our mining and steel communities," said Simeon Leach, economic development manager for the council, in Cluj last month. "Getting people into work is a massive step, and I really do think they are trying. But social inclusion is never easy to achieve."

*Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

Back in Pata Rat, snow is falling heavily, and children trudge up the slopes of the dump to sledge back down.

With the lights of Cluj twinkling in the distance, it is almost picturesque.

"It is very beautiful here - like that scene in American Beauty with plastic bags blowing on the breeze," said Petru Fechete, 30, who lives on the dump. "Only times the bags by a thousand and add the stench," he said with a laugh.

"Before I was proud to live in the centre; I dressed smartly and held my head up high," he said in fluent English, having lived in London for three months.

"But now I feel ashamed. I go for job interviews, and everything is fine until I have to give my address - then I'm told there is no job. We used to be part of society - now we are out here like savages."