Demolition of Illegal Roma Dwellings Begins in Bulgaria's Plovdiv

The first two illegal Roma dwellings in the neighbourhood of Stolipinovo in Bulgaria's second largest city of Plovdiv were demolished on Wednesday.

Plovdiv municipality will provide temporary accommodation to inhabitants of the demolished buildings as well as transportation and storage of their household belongings.

Throughout the years, the inhabitants have been asked to bring down the houses, which were built on private property, but they have refused. Instead, they had tried to purchase the land on which their houses are built, but did not reach agreement with the owner.

The illegal dwellings were built more than twenty years ago and the families inhabiting them have at least four children.

Eighty orders for the demolition of illegal buildings in the neighbourhood have been issued since the beginning of the year. Among them are thirty residential buildings.

According to the district mayor, more than 80 % of the houses in the neighbourhood, which is inhabited by nearly 60 000 people of Roma origin, are illegal.

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