Official offices continue shelter for homeless Roma

TIRANA, Feb. 8 – The People’s Advocate offices are still the shelter for the homeless eight Roma families in capital Tirana.
Its top official Igli Totozani has been working effortlessly until now to find a new shelter for them, also adding that temporary solutions are not good.
Totozani is cooperating with the Labor Ministry and the Tirana municipality to find a permanent solution for their housing, his office said.
Last week he moved dozens of homeless members of the Roma community into his Tirana office to highlight their plight as a cold snap hits the region. He said it was an “emergency solution,” warning that the children would otherwise die of exposure in the open.
The Roma were left without shelter after being twice evicted from private land on the fringes of Tirana where they had set up tents.
Most of Albania’s Roma live in tents or ramshackle homes in the city outskirts, and lack access to adequate housing, education and employment.
So far the municipality of Tirana has offered a gym and the ministry and old military barrack to house the Roma families. Totozani’s office has said that both structures were not proper and has insisted on a permanent solution.
Amnesty International called on Albanian authorities to immediately provide adequate housing for the Roma families and blamed the government for not living up to its obligations.
“Dozens of Roma people, including the elderly and small children, are facing winter on the streets without a roof over their heads, without any certainty about their future security or adequate assistance from the authorities,” said Jezerca Tigani, the watchdog’s Europe and Central Asia Deputy Programme Director.
“This is the result of decades of failure by the authorities to provide adequate housing for Roma and other vulnerable groups in Albania, despite their national and international obligations,” she added.
Part of the 82 million euro assistance Brussels signed with Albania for the next two years is dedicated to the Roma community (1.5 million euro).
It seems that their situation will be another topic to be stressed at the EU’s annual progress report for the country to be issued in October.