The mayor of the affected district of Košice has insisted that the Slovak Roma families who speak only Slovak are not coming to Hungary because of any centrally organised resettlement scheme, let alone one financed by the local authority. But his explanation has done little to allay suspicion.
‘Nothing to see here’, says mayor
Mayors in north-eastern Hungary have in recent days drawn public attention to a curious and potentially socially explosive process. The mayors of Szalonna and Encs have both said that many Roma families who speak only Slovak may soon arrive in their towns, as their homes in Košice — makeshift huts on the notorious Lubina settlement, effectively unfit for habitation and built in what appears to be a quasi-illegal manner — are being cleared ahead of Slovakia’s municipal elections. Both towns have either introduced or are preparing immediate measures, while the mayor of Encs has also warned residents not to help facilitate the process by selling their properties.
Gergely Mikola, the mayor of Encs, has already called a meeting with fellow mayors to discuss the issue and promised to provide more details later today:
A response from the leadership of the major eastern Slovak city was not long in coming. There is no project, programme or plan involving the mass relocation of people to Hungary, Lenka Kovacevicova, the head of the Košice-Terasa district, told the Hungarian news agency MTI on Thursday morning. Nor, she said, is the district preparing, organising or financing anything of the sort.
She said that if anyone were to relocate all 300 people concerned, they would need to put their hands deep into their pockets and raise €2.5 million. At the same time, she said, few of the residents have jobs, meaning they cannot take out loans. In her view, the settlement’s residents decided to move of their own accord. She did, however, draw attention to one rather interesting form of support.
The mayor’s organisation helps Slovak Roma families who ‘want to relocate’
She set up a civic association, the Association for a Dignified Life and Order. Many people have donated money and in-kind support to the association so that it can assist families “who want to change their lives, but are unable to do so on their own”.
One such family has arrived in Szalonna, although the mayor was unaware of it — as reported in an earlier article — and local residents reacted with dismay, saying they have serious social problems of their own.
Kovacevicova did not explain why, if the point is to help people gain a foothold, properties in poor condition are being bought precisely in socially burdened north-eastern Hungary, where renovation and furnishing are apparently also possible. The implication is that Slovak-speaking Roma, who are perhaps gaining genuine property ownership for the first time in their lives, may be glad to leave their previous miserable living conditions behind.
Lenka Kovacevicova also denied media reports claiming that she wanted to move 2,500 people from Košice to Szalonna, telling MTI that no such plan had ever existed and none exists now. She said she was not involved in deporting people or in human trafficking. She added that she would soon hold a press conference on the matter.
Slovak government weighs in
The office of Slovakia’s government commissioner for Roma affairs is monitoring the relocation of two Roma families from Košice to Hungary, checking the information and plans to issue a statement once it has been assessed, Alexander Dasko, the head of the Bratislava office, told MTI by telephone on Thursday.
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He said both families moving to Szalonna had signed declarations stating that their move to Hungary was voluntary.
“These houses were not paid for by the district or by the city of Košice. The families concerned bought the properties themselves, with a loan if necessary,” Lenka Kovačevičová told Új Szó. What she did not add was that the loan is being provided by her own organisation to families which, by her own account, have no regular income.
Municipal elections will be held in Slovakia this autumn, and Lenka Kovacevicová is standing for the post of mayor of Košice. There have also been suggestions in Slovakia that the timing of the demolition of the Lubina shacks may conceal political motives. “That cannot be ruled out,” the government commissioner said.
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