Discriminated against, segregated, illegally evicted in 2013, deprived of running water and often even electricity, sworn at by the local police, and despised by the local authorities, the Roma of Eforie Sud understand the pain and the problems confronting members of the African American community. Although their lives are hard, they believe that the lives they lead are still much better than their brothers across the ocean.
In this respect, besides supporting Black Lives Matter, the Roma of Eforie also thank the police and local authorities for only swearing at them, threatening them, and cutting off their drinking water and electricity, rather than shooting them. Without water, without electricity, without adequate housing, and without jobs, if the local police behaved like their counterparts in the USA, the Roma of Eforie Sud would not have the money or normal conditions to hold funerals.
As you read these lines, the following things are happening in Eforie Sud:
-after losing their final appeal in the court case brought against them for the abuses they committed in 2013 (forced eviction on the basis of a local council decision), the Eforie local authorities have yet to meet the obligations laid down by the court and are at the last moment contesting a court decision to force them to do so.
– during this court case, the town hall is trying to defend itself by say that only housing solutions have been found for only three families (only now, in 2020, after the court forced the local authorities to act) because there is nothing they can do about the rest, even though they claim to want to help them.- on the one hand, the solution they have found will apparently be enacted after the lifting of the state of emergency, and on the other hand, there is no explanation why the Roma have not been paid the original compensation for three years. In other words, if they did not have the money to provide them with adequate housing, it is obvious that they did not pay the compensation (for illegal demolition of the Roma’s homes) only from ill will.- the town hall’s ill will is also proven by the fact that once the state of emergency was lifted, the community’s access to running water was cut off (after we forced to town hall to provide water when the state of emergency was declared), as was access to electricity, and almost all the Roma received eviction notices, which cited expenses that cannot be demonstrated.
