Fighting natural disaster and discrimination

Imran (47) and his family were staying in an abandoned evacuation bunker after heavy flooding destroyed their home in Serbia. They were living there with around 30 other Roma who had all been displaced from the same settlement, including his daughter Santiana and his two grandchildren (1 year old Nevisa and 4 month old Alen). Despite being heavily in need following the disaster, him and his family were struggling to access assistance while the conditions at the bunker were not suitable for young children. After the issue was raised by Save the Children, local partners and the Ombudsman Institution they were relocated to a new legal Roma settlement on the outskirts of Belgrade. 

“Things got worse after we last saw you. My wife had a heart attack and had to go to hospital. She was there for 10 days, it was very serious. She has angina and has had problems with high-blood pressure before, but never anything like this. Was it because of the situation? Because of where we were having to stay? … I don’t think it was just because of that, but the cold there, the stress? – it probably didn’t help.

Then Alen, the youngest baby, got sick too. He had trouble breathing and we were very worried. That place was not fit for children and thankfully we were moved before it got worse. He got some medicine and now he is all better. My wife is out of hospital too. She needs to have a bypass in the future but right now she is good. Right now we are all happy.

Honestly, it so much better here than before. We have a real home now. There are bedrooms and privacy. We share a bathroom with three other families but there is hot water. Here we have the things we need.

There is such a difference with the children too. Before they were nervous and angry. There was so much stress for them to have to deal with. What will happen next? Where will we sleep tonight? These are the questions they were asking themselves. It affects them. Even if they are children and didn’t know exactly what was going on, they could still tell something was wrong.

We hope that we can stay here now. Technically it is still temporary. We need the ministry to confirm that we can stay, that we are officially registered and able to receive social benefits too. When we get that piece of paper saying this is now ours it will be a good day.

Until then we are still struggling to get food. We are a long way from the centre of Belgrade and it is hard to get work or salvage things out here for money. But we are thankful. Thankful for all the support we got from the charities and the Ombudsman. Thankful for what they have done, for how they have fought for us. Now we have a roof over our heads. Now we have a home.”

Imran’s story was much less optimistic at the end of May while he and his family were staying at the evacuation bunker. He told us of discrimination they face all the time, that especially affected them when the floods stroke.

“We went to an evacuation centre but when we arrived they turned us all away because of who we are. Because we are Roma. When we got there they wouldn’t let us in. “What are those gypsies doing here” they said in front of everyone.

I can’t explain to you how I felt when they told us that they didn’t want gypsies in their centre. The floods have destroyed our homes. My roof fell to the ground. We were up all night using buckets to get the water out of the house but it was of no use.

This attitude in not new to us. Without doctors, without aid, without food. We are used to nobody paying us any attention, to nobody helping us when we are in need. Where we live people go to bed hungry. Today is the 21st Century and it is shameful. It is shameful that children still go to bed hungry.”

Luckily, and with many efforts, Imran story had a happy end, at least for now. Many Roma families remain legally invisible and out of the system, that way being, and especially children, vulnerable to discrimination, neglect and abuse.

At least 53 people have died in Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia, after three months’ worth of rain fell in just three days. The heaviest rainfall since records began 120 years ago has caused rivers to burst their banks and triggered hundreds of landslides across the region. More than 3 million people have been affected by the crisis across the region, including over 22% of Serbia’s population, 1.6 million people. Many have lost everything in the floods as their houses were submerged and possessions washed away.