Settlements

The society for the Improvement of Local Roma Communities (...) started an investigation named Oversight over the Roma communities in Belgrade. The most important is – if you look at the settlements – you see nothing else than misery. We do speak about 152 communities, we speak about 60.000 people. Of course, there are much more Roma in Belgrade because Roma don’t live only in Roma-communities. But the largest part is living in these Roma settlements. Milos Petrovic

settlement GAZELA BLOK 18a

In the district with Belgrade’s plush hotels where a overnight stay costs several hundred of Euros

The settlement at the Gazelle Street is located in New-Belgrade. It is a typical urban slum – a community of pau-perism and inhuman living conditions. About 50 families are living there, almost the half of the 200 slum-dwellers are children. Most of them are “displaced persons” coming predominantly from Kosovo. At the beginning only a few shacks were located there, but conditioned by the developing of the wars the settlement had grown stage by stage.

In order to survive they settled down in the city centre, nearby the rubbish bins which they search for recyclable material – mainly wastepaper. These residents live outside the usual socio-economic opportunities, without equita-ble access to the social resources, they belong to the group of the extreme poor, downtrodden, socially at risk and socially disadvantaged people. Their complex problematic situation can’t be solved by themselves.

About 150 Roma-Slums exist in Belgrade, in which some 60.000 Roma live. Basically these settlements are mostly slums or, if they consist of solid buildings they show bad structural conditions.

According to the inquiry report of The Society for the Improvement of Roma Settlements (DURN), 2002

settlement VOJNI PUT I

Vojni Put I is located in Belgrade’s former district of the ethnic Germans

The houses of the urban district Vojni Put were built without any planning permission. This quarter is said to be the biggest illegal settlement in Belgrade. The construction started 1957. The number of residents increased mostly in the end of the 1950ies and in the early 1960ies. At the beginning of the 1970ies the inhabitant’s connected their houses to the urban water supply unauthorized and in a less professional manner. The wastewater is often not canalized, in many cases faeces pits exist, the disposal of wastes is inadequately organised and a lot of times farm animals, for example goats, pigs, chickens and rabbits, can be found in the gardens – all this are reasons for stale air in the narrow streets.

Most of the residential properties consist of two rooms, in which two to twelve persons of different generations live. Every dweller has a living space about 7.9 square metres, which is far below the national average. The inhabitants often sleep on foam mattresses, which simply lie on the floor. The floors are made of wood or con-crete. In order to protect their rooms from rising moistness, cartons or fibreboards are put under the carpets. The bad conditions of the properties entail very cold flats in winter and very hot in summer. The housetops often leak, the walls often moist, the rooms are tight, low-ceilinged and dark.

Normally wood-burning stoves are used for cooking. In winter this stoves are used for heating the floors. In summer they were carried out to the courtyard for cooking. Only few streets in the settlement are asphalted, very few are lighted. With a few exceptions these dwellings cannot satisfy their residents' needs.

According to the inquiry report of The Society for the Improvement of Roma Settlements (DURN), 2002

settlement DEPONIA VINCA – LIVING IN THE RUBBISH

About 20 % of the Eastern European Roma are living on the collection of recyclable material

The settlement at the waste dump came up in the 1970ies for economic reasons. It is located 100 metres away from the place, where Belgrade’s waste is unloaded. There as some hovels which are built of stone or other solid material. But there are also improvised housings which are made out of simple material like nylon, sheet or carton. All over the place you find mud and refuse. There is no electricity and no further public infrastructure. The dwellers provide themselves with water of three sources very near by the waste dump. The whole settlement is a pathetic sight, a terrible place for living, in particular for the many children. Most of them are obviously diseased, mainly suffering from several skin disorders.

According to the inquiry report of The Society for the Improvement of Roma Settlements (DURN), 2002