Sesto Fiorentino (FI), January 1, 2011. Arson is the cause of the fire that destroyed a Roma settlement in Sesto Fiorentino. EveryOne and Opera Nomadi urge authorities to investigate because of attempted murder of 100 Roma people. Urgent project to protect and integrate the Roma families is needed!
Florence, January 1, 2011. Opera Nomadi Toscana and EveryOne Group is asking the Public Prosecutor of Florence to establish the dynamics and evidence on the fire destroying a large shed last night, December 31, 2010, in Sesto Fiorentino (Florence), via del Ponte di Quaracchi No. 72, to proceed against unknown criminals if the Prosecutor recognizes the crimes of arson and attempted murder against the local Roma community.
The facts: the night of December 31, 2010 somebody set a Roma settlement in Sesto Fiorentino, via Quaracchi No. 72, on fire. The shed burnt down was used as a shelter by Roma community from Romania (100 people), including children, women and people with serious diseases and disabilities, often evicted by local authorities and already subject to episodes of discrimination. The fire developed rapidly and violently. There were no victims only due to the fact that the occupants of the structure were still awake. When the flames had enveloped, half of the occupants have fled in panic, understanding the source of the fire as an attack. Local police and firefighters occurred in a short time and succeeded in taming flames. This morning, January 1, 2011, the criminal nature of the fire has been suggested with great probability, thanks to the testimony of a woman, already collected by Opera Nomadi Florence and local police authorities. The woman had noticed some attackers setting the shed occupied by the Roma on fire. Last year, the community itself came under attack by an arsonist who set fire to a shack, but the family victim of the episode was not believed, in spite of EveryOne proved the good faith and the credibility of witnesses.
* Italy
* Roma in the NewsItaly: Fire Attack Against Roma Settlement in Sesto Fiorentino (Florence). Urgen
Mr. Valery Novoselsky, Editor, Roma Virtual Network. http://www.valery-novoselsky.org/romavirtualnetwork.html Consultant, European Roma Information Office http://www.erionet.org/staff.html
by nov_val
nov_val’s websiteItaly: Fire Attack Against Roma Settlement in Sesto Fiorentino (Florence). Urgent Help Needed
Sesto Fiorentino (FI), January 1, 2011. Arson is the cause of the fire that destroyed a Roma settlement in Sesto Fiorentino. EveryOne and Opera Nomadi urge authorities to investigate because of attempted murder of 100 Roma people. Urgent project to protect and integrate the Roma families is needed
Florence, January 1, 2011. Opera Nomadi Toscana and EveryOne Group is asking the Public Prosecutor of Florence to establish the dynamics and evidence on the fire destroying a large shed last night, December 31, 2010, in Sesto Fiorentino (Florence), via del Ponte di Quaracchi No. 72, to proceed against unknown criminals if the Prosecutor recognizes the crimes of arson and attempted murder against the local Roma community.
The facts: the night of December 31, 2010 somebody set a Roma settlement in Sesto Fiorentino, via Quaracchi No. 72, on fire. The shed burnt down was used as a shelter by Roma community from Romania (100 people), including children, women and people with serious diseases and disabilities, often evicted by local authorities and already subject to episodes of discrimination. The fire developed rapidly and violently. There were no victims only due to the fact that the occupants of the structure were still awake. When the flames had enveloped, half of the occupants have fled in panic, understanding the source of the fire as an attack. Local police and firefighters occurred in a short time and succeeded in taming flames. This morning, January 1, 2011, the criminal nature of the fire has been suggested with great probability, thanks to the testimony of a woman, already collected by Opera Nomadi Florence and local police authorities. The woman had noticed some attackers setting the shed occupied by the Roma on fire. Last year, the community itself came under attack by an arsonist who set fire to a shack, but the family victim of the episode was not believed, in spite of EveryOne proved the good faith and the credibility of witnesses.
Please note that the Roma community of Sesto Fiorentino has been recently hit by an evacuation, an operation that the authorities have called “cleaning”, denying the presence of Roma in the shacks destroyed, while the families affected by the order they were in a precarious condition serious, vulnerable to attack by intolerant and the hardness of the winter frost, the hunger, the worsening of disease which affects many components. A group of 16 sick Roma with children with fever has been forced to wander for two consecutive nights in Florence seeking refuge, but getting only refusals, including by an hospital, so that the same NGOs Opera Nomadi EveryOne provide at their own expenses to a hotel accommodation.
The municipal authorities continue to reiterate that they have no duty of care towards the Roma families in Sesto Fiorentino, claiming that they are foreign citizens with no means of livelihood and therefore without rights of residence or social assistance. In fact, the Roma families forced to leave Romania to conditions of poverty and neglect are protected by Italian law and community laws, as the right to housing (as set out in Article 34 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights in the European Union), the right to education of children (Article 14), the child’s right to protection and care necessary for his welfare (Article 24), the right to health (Article 35), which is not exclusive of Italian people.
The allegations made against Roma Sesto Fiorentino also violate the prohibition of racial and ethnic discrimination, enshrined in Article 21 of the above mentioned Charter, Article 19 of the Treaty on European Union (TFEU) and 2000/43/EC Directive of the 29th of June 2000, condemning the failure to adopt appropriate measures to restore minimum levels of social and health care.
To permanently solve this emergency is necessary for the Roma community to be protected and not fought by the police authorities of Florence and Sesto Fiorentino or by the Social Assistances, which are called institutionally to combat poverty and exclusion, not to harass the poor and excluded.
To resolve, in the future, this sensitive humanitarian emergency, the NGOs involved in the protection of the Roma’s rights in Sesto Fiorentino, are working on a project, supported by the Italian Red Cross, that can immediately obtain funds for the creation of a European structure in the area of Florence/Sesto Fiorentino for homeless families in state of emergency; they’re also planning a project for the Roma integration – also possibly financed with EU funds – which includes the creation of a professional enterprise engaged in public and private works, gardening, maintenance of green spaces, with housing for the Roma families. The community that will be created will support Roma people independently, also with social assistance for disabled and diseased people and the schooling of children.
EveryOne Group
+39 393 4010237 :: +39 331 3585406
info@everyonegroup.com :: www.everyonegroup.com
Source: Roma Buzz Aggregator
Date: 01.01.2011