Voices from the Ghetto

The city of Samokov in Bulgaria is home to a community of around 10,000 Roma, whose living conditions leave much to be desired: many infrastructural elements are either of poor quality or lacking altogether, and Roma community leaders have stated to us that the vast majority of their people are without steady employment.

Moreover, the River Bokludja, which runs through the Roma “ghetto”, overflows twice a year on average, forcing people out of their homes and doing considerable damage.

During our visit, in January of 2008, the Mayor of Samokov was – or at least, appeared to be - very enthusiastic about collaborating with foreign partners to solve the problem of the River Bokludja and/or implement other projects, such as the idea of a kindergarten for Roma children.

However, a few months later, when WTP actually succeeded in locating a Dutch construction engineer specialized in flood control who was willing to find ways of addressing this problem (and even offered to cover his own expenses in Bulgaria for a preliminary site assessment, if we picked up the cost of his plane ticket), the Mayor of Samokov suddenly “wasn’t interested.”

Our Bulgarian Roma host in Samokov was subsequently told by the Mayor that as of 2007 the funding for the River Bokludja project had already been received, and that everything was therefore “all set.”

If that is the case, then why hasn’t work on reinforcement of the river banks been started? And where did the money go?

All of this would seem to confirm the points raised by several of the ghetto’s residents during our film, when they criticize all authorities - even their own Roma representatives - as being ineffective and corrupt.

In a situation as complex as this one, whom do you trust? Apparently even the EU has doubts on this score: the Czech newspaper Respect recently reported that Brussels suspended all financial support for infrastructure projects in Bulgaria in March 2008, citing the disappearance of funds that had been allocated for a road construction plan.

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