site.btaECtHR Halts Demolition of Two Illegal Houses in Gurmen

ECtHR
Halts Demolition of
Two Illegal Houses in Gurmen


Sofia, July 11 (BTA) - The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled on the halting of the demolition of two illegal houses in Gurmen Village, Nova TV said. The operation was scheduled for Monday.

Following an appeal by Bulgarian human rights organizations, ECtHR insisted that the Government would say where the inhabitants would be accommodated. According to the appeal, the families, whose houses were to be demolished, included minor children, children with serious disabilities and a pregnant woman.

The Strasbourg Court expects a reply from the Bulgarian authorities by Monday.

On Thursday, the construction supervision authority sent a letter to the Social Assistance Directorate in the nearby town of Gotse Delchev saying that two more houses will be demolished in the Roma neighbourhood near Gurmen, southern Bulgaria, on July 13 and twenty more by the end of July.

The demolition of illegal homes - a total of 124 of them - in this Roma neighbourhood was prompted by anti-Roma riots in Gurmen. They started as a row between residents of Gurmen Municipality and Roma people over a trivial issue on May 23 and caused serious tension in the following few days and brought to light a conflict which had simmered for many years.

In the first demolition operation on June 29, four homes were flatted out and 20 people remained homeless. They refused to be accommodated in welfare establishments and refuse to leave the Roma neighbourhood. Their relatives have taken them in. PK/LN/TK/

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/ТК/