Burgas municipality to tear down Roma ghetto

2003 news

2002 news

Sega daily

Burgas will be the first Bulgarian city where the municipality will tear down the Roma ghetto. The town mayor, Yoan Kostadinov, announced that the documentation necessary for the demolition of the existing buildings will be filed at the Directorate for National and Construction Control within a month. Over 200 Roma are currently living in the ghetto in the Meden Rudnik neighbourhood.

The municipality has not discussed where the people will go after their houses are demolished.

The decision for tearing down the illegal constructions was taken by the Burgas municipal council after it was proposed by the Union of Democratic Forces and Gerjovden. They motivated their decision with the fact that the Roma occupy a lot between a supermarket and a petrol station and have turned the place in a "canker". The municipal counselors who made the proposal claim that the inhabitants of the ghetto steal electricity, do not pay taxes, and that many investors have started backing out of the neighbourhood.

The protocols for demolishing illegal constructions can be appealed before several court instances.

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