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🇷🇸 Serbia /Culture & Society

Razing threatens informal Roma settlement near Belgrade bus terminus, leaving residents at risk of homelessness

From N1 Serbia · () Serbian

Translated from Serbian and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources In the courts
  • Thirty residents of an informal Roma settlement in Belgrade, including a three-month-old baby and an 83-year-old person, face possible homelessness if the settlement is demolished.
  • The European Court of Human Rights allowed a temporary measure blocking forced eviction to expire, saying there were insufficient criteria to extend it.
  • Residents say authorities have offered no alternative housing and are seeking a solution before demolition could begin next week.

Thirty people living in an informal Roma settlement near the terminus of Belgrade’s bus line 26 fear they will soon have nowhere to go. The youngest resident is three months old, while the oldest is 83.

The settlement, at the corner of Vojvode Vlahovića and Braće Jerković streets in Voždovac, faces demolition. A temporary measure from the European Court of Human Rights had halted the forced eviction, but the court did not extend it, saying there were not enough criteria to do so.

We were at the Voždovac municipality yesterday, and we were also at 27 March. We also went to the municipality the day before yesterday, to 27 March, and again they offered us no solutions.

· Miljan RistićA resident described repeated efforts to obtain help from local authorities.

No alternative accommodation has been provided. Miljan Ristić, one of the residents, said he expected demolition to begin next week and was not optimistic that recent efforts would produce a response from the authorities.

The European Court did not extend the measure because it considers there are not enough criteria to extend it, and now we are neither here nor there.

· Miljan RistićHe described the residents’ situation after the court’s temporary protection expired.

Residents visited the Voždovac municipality and other government offices, and submitted a request to the Secretariat for Property Affairs. Ristić said they had received no proposed solution. He argued that authorities were treating the case as the demolition of illegal structures rather than a forced eviction, calling that one of their biggest problems.

The notices announcing the planned demolition appeared on the buildings where residents live. An initiative by A11 and the European court’s temporary measure delayed the eviction, but residents now say their only hope is outside help. Ristić said one possible solution would be to build shacks elsewhere, though he described that prospect as a cycle that leaves them unsure what to expect.

The only possible solution may be to build shacks somewhere else, but that is just going around in circles and, honestly, we no longer know what to expect or how to expect it.

· Miljan RistićHe discussed the possibility of relocating residents to makeshift shelters.
About this summary

Originally published by N1 Serbia in Serbian. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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