Municipality of Rome presents semi-final draft plan for the overcoming of Roma camps: an improvised and expensive program

PRESS RELEASE

Municipality of Rome presents semi-final draft plan for the overcoming of Roma camps.
Associazione 21 luglio: “An improvised program, in violation of human rights and expensive. We call for an immediate change of course”.

Rome, 3.20.2017 – Lack of compliance with the principles recommended by the European Commission, absence of specific financing and appropriate consultations, process of “skimming” with probable initiation of new cycles of new shantytowns, slums and illegal occupations, reinforcing perverse and expensive assistance circuits. This is the alarm raised today by Associazione 21 luglio during the press conference where the path for overcoming Roma camps decided by the Municipality of Rome was presented and analysed.
Mayor Virginia Raggi had written in her electoral program: “For what concerns the management of Roma camps, the measures that have already been provided by the European Community will be implemented, as acknowledged by the Government, in relation to the gradual overcoming of the camps”. Today, 9 months after taking office, Raggi’s City Council appears instead to be moving in an opposite direction to that provided by the National Strategy for Roma Inclusion drafted by the Italian Government in the implementation of the Communication of the European Commission n. 173/2011.
Following the Memory of Council of 21 November which sets the time schedule of actions, the Resolution of the Capitoline Council of 16 December establishing the local table for the inclusion of the Roma, Sinti and Caminanti people”, the first convocation of the institutional table with the approval of a semi-final draft of the “Plan of Roma Capitale for Inclusion of Roma, Sinti and Caminanti people”, it has been possible to enter into the details of the scheduled course of actions foreseen by the Municipality of Rome viewing the documentation filed by the Office of the Capitoline Advocate constituted in a case pending before the Civil Court of Rome.
This course, exclusively addressed to approximately 4,500 Roma present in formal and tollerate settlements, and thus forgetting the remaining 3,000 present in informal settlements, foresees three stages: expulsion from the “camps” of individuals without legal documentation, evaluation of social needs and inclusion in intermediate reception structures. In the semi-final draft “Plan” released on January 31, 2017 by the Institutional Table details of the course are delineated: the closure of social services are foreseen and the suspension, in the settlements where public services are present, of school accompaniment; among the families that will be considered as beneficiaries only those with registered residence and willing to participate in individualized plans for social inclusion subordinating them to the fulfillment of compulsory education; absolutely no action is planned to regularize the position of “de facto stateless persons”.
A key passage in the course concerns the “intermediate structures”. To begin the construction the Municipality of Rome has a few days ago released the procedures to build a new “camp” in the XV Municipality (or neighboring Municipalities). A settlement that will cost the municipal coffers more than 1.5 million euro and that, for cost and management characteristics, will be very similar to the “equipped villages” desired by the former Mayor of Rome Gianni Alemanno, where, in the face of an alleged temporary nature, the costs for social inclusion is nearly zero and therefore resets to zero the chances of overcoming.
Associazione 21 luglio analyzed the course introduced by the Municipality of Rome identifying in it the absence of the cardinal principles of the National Strategy for Roma Inclusion, the lack of consultative processes, the birth of a new evil “system of assistance for Roma-only”, the absence of alternative housing tools as well as the lack of assured funding.
“The consequences? – asks Associazione 21 luglio – In the immediate an expense of 1.5 million euro to build a new “Roma camp”. The course that will be implemented is based on a principle of merit and not need thus we will witness the start of a dangerous process of skimming from which no more than 1,500 Roma will benefit. The other 6,000 (those present in formal and informal settlements) will remain on the street with an evident proliferation of slums and the cycle of occupations.”
“Actually – continues Associazione 21 luglio – if the Municipality of Rome intends to comply with the UE provisions, as promised during Mayor Virgina Raggi’s election campaign, the National Strategy, drafted by the Italian Government and not by associations for human rights, speaks clearly. It is the competence of the Municipalities – the Strategy states – to assess a wide range of housing options such as: social housing in ordinary public housing, support for the purchase of ordinary private housing, support for the rental of ordinary private housing, self-construction accompanied by social inclusion projects, rental of rural houses and farm buildings of public property into disuse.”
In light of the critical situation, Associazione 21 luglio asks the Raggi Council for a rapid turnabout and does so with three specific requests: the suspension of any action as provided for in the course of overcoming Roma camps; contact with the Lazio Region to start again, as provided by the governance framework given in the Strategy, from that which emerged during the meetings of the Regional Table in recent months that have seen the participation of Roma communities and associations; the approval of the Resolution of popular initiative for overcoming of camps signed by 6,000 citizens of Rome and presented by the 9 organizations of the “Comitato Accogliamoci“ which will be debated during the Capitoline Assembly on March 30th. The Resolution, the text which was taken up also by the then city councilor Virginia Raggi, could represent a turning point but also a moment of truth to understand truly how far the City of Rome really wants to go to overcome the shame of shantytowns in the Roman suburbs or whether said commitment remains devoid of any concreteness.
More information:
Elena Risi
Press Office
Associazione 21 luglio
Tel. 06.64815620 – 388.4867611
Email: stampa@21luglio.org
www.21luglio.org