We Are Roma
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Chesmin Lug camp was established by the UN as a temporary settlement for the 9,000 Roma of Mitrovica, who fled when their homes were attacked in 1999 during the war in Kosovo. Today, hundreds of families remain in the camps, unable to return home and living in poverty on land heavily contaminated with lead, zinc, arsenic, and other metal residues from nearby mining and smelting factories. © Balazs Gardi/VII Network -
Hastily set up after attacks in June 1999, Chesmin Lug and neighboring Zitkovac camp were intended as a temporary solution until Roma homes were reconstructed in their original neighborhoods. But a decade later, after many attempted international aid projects, no complete solution has been reached for the remaining families in the camp. © Balazs Gardi/VII Network -
Children in Zitkovac camp fashion kites from simple plastic bags. They are especially vulnerable to exposure to lead residues as they play in the toxic dust. Many of the younger children were born into the camps with various birth defects, a result of their mothers drinking lead-contaminated water during their pregnancy. © Balazs Gardi/VII Network -
Zitkovac camp is located near the Trepca lead mines on the northern side of Kosovo’s Ibar River. The Roma here live just a few kilometers away from their ancestral home, where they once lived in a large mahala (neighborhood) consisting of houses handed down through families for generations. As such, many of the homes did not have formal addresses or land titles. Lack of these documents has posed a major obstacle in resettling the Roma. © Balazs Gardi/VII Network -
Routines of daily life continue in camps that were never meant to be inhabited for more than several months, let alone years. Over the last decade, international aid organizations have been confronted with an abundance of challenges in attempting to move the Roma away from the toxic campsites. Many Roma lack the birth certificates and citizenship documents necessary to obtain jobs, housing permits, and permission to move freely outside of the camps. © Balazs Gardi/VII Network -
A doctor collects blood samples in Zitkovac after medical tests revealed very high lead levels in the Roma camps near Mitrovica. World Health Organization tests have consistently shown blood levels of 65 µg/dL (micrograms per deciliter). According to international benchmarks, 10µg/dL causes the beginning of brain damage. Over 70 µg/dL, the affected person must be hospitalized to prevent death from chemical poisoning. © Balazs Gardi/VII Network -
Roma who have been displaced across borders face immense difficulties proving residency in order to register as citizens. Without land titles or civil registration documents, the Roma can neither return to their homes nor exercise their rights as displaced persons to recover or be compensated for their possessions. © Balazs Gardi/VII Network -
A mother and child sit in the Chesmin Lug camp. © Balazs Gardi/VII Network
For generations, Roma families living in mahalas (neighborhoods) in the Balkans have passed down their houses to relatives through informal means. It is uncommon for these inheritances to be properly registered or to have official legal titles.
These same families often forgo registering the birth of a child with local authorities, as the cost of obtaining a birth certificate can be prohibitive. Without official identification documents or legal claims to their property, Roma families in the region are at increased risk of statelessness. Their problems are only exacerbated by the decades of conflict that have plagued the Balkans.
The Roma of Mitrovica are but one example of this problem. In June 1999, more than 4,000 Roma from this city in northern Kosovo fled their homes in order to escape violence between ethnic Albanians and Serbs. Many of the Roma were subsequently resettled by the United Nations in refugee camps. Although the camps were intended to be temporary, many Roma who live there have no legal documents to establish their identity or prove their residency. Without them, the Roma encounter enormous obstacles in returning home.
The problem only worsened when Kosovo declared its independence in February 2008. The Roma now living in refugee camps can neither prove their previous legal residence in Kosovo nor meet the necessary requirements to obtain citizenship in Montenegro.
The Open Society Roma Initiatives Office work to help undocumented and stateless Roma throughout Europe.
