Italy, Roma: community facing forced eviction
©Third Party
City authorities in Milan, northern Italy, are preparing to forcibly evict a community of about 200
Roma people living in Rubattino area in the east of the city. According to local NGOs and media,
they have announced that they will carry out the evictions at some point before 21 September.
According to the information received by Amnesty International, It is not clear what alternative accommodation will be offered to the community living in the Rubattino area. They have not been consulted on the proposed evictions, and the authorities have made no attempt to identify with them any feasible alternatives to the evictions. When the city authorities have previously evicted Roma communities, they have offered some form of shelter in the short term (weeks or a few months), and only to women and small children, in the city’s dormitories for homeless people. Without alternative accommodation, the families face living in harsh conditions at another makeshift camp, or they may be left without basic shelter, meaning that they would be living outdoors including in harsh weather conditions.
The community includes around 70 children, 40 of whom attend schools nearby. The eviction threatens to interrupt their schooling and seriously disrupt their education.
Under domestic law, the authorities should notify each individual, or publish an order or notice, but, according to the information available to Amnesty International, they have not done so. Because the order has not been formalized in this way, the community cannot challenge it through the courts, and stop or postpone the eviction.
Most of those living in the Rubattino camp have previously experienced at least one forced eviction. Previous forced evictions involved the destruction of shelters, clothes, mattresses, and sometimes, medicines and documents. All these evictions are believed to have been carried without the procedural safeguards required under regional and international human rights standards.
Additional Information
For at least the last 10 years, numerous forced evictions of Roma communities have been carried out in Italy. Forced evictions became more frequent after special agreements (Patti per la Sicurezza) were signed by the national government and local
authorities, including those of Milan, on 18 May 2007. As a result of these special agreements some powers were transferred from within the Ministry of Interior’s remit to the local authorities, with the aim of addressing perceived security threats, including those supposedly posed by the presence of Roma communities in these cities.
Under international law forced evictions - which are evictions carried out without appropriate procedural guarantees, including the possibility of seeking redress through the courts, and without assurances of adequate alternative housing - are a gross violation of a range of human rights including the right to adequate housing. Evictions may be carried out only as a last resort, once all other feasible alternatives to eviction have been explored and only when all appropriate procedural protections, in accordance with international and regional human rights standards, are in place. Italy has come under severe criticism from international and regional human rights bodies, including the European Committee on Social Rights, which found Italy in violation of the European Social Charter. Italy has however failed to implement these recommendations and has on the contrary continued and in some cases escalated forced evictions of Roma communities.