Out in the cold ... gipsies in Strane Pod Tatrami, Slovakia
Pictures: JON BOND
Posted on 01/18/2004 7:18:47 PM PST by Pikamax
| SUN SPECIAL INVESTIGATION |
By OLIVER HARVEY in Kezmarok, Slovakia
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| RELATED STORIES |
| • Sun Says |
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GIPSIES determined to flee grinding poverty in Eastern Europe are preparing to flood into Britain in their thousands.
They are counting the days until May 1 when countries such as Poland and Slovakia join the EU, a Sun investigation has revealed.
Britain has pledged to welcome them with open arms — unlike EU partners such as France, Germany, Italy and Spain. And yesterday one grateful Polish dad-of-two told us: “We are all desperate to go to Britain. We want a better life.
“I will get the bus to London in May, definitely.”
A jobless neighbour — also a Roma gipsy — vowed: “I will sell everything I own and buy bus tickets for all the family.”
The gipsies we spoke to in Poland and Slovakia — among 1.5 million Roma who will suddenly become EU citizens — insisted they wanted to come to the UK to work.
Once here they will be entitled to the same health, education, pension and welfare benefits as the rest of us. Other EU countries like France and Germany have ruled out free access to jobs for up to seven years.
But Britain and Ireland will grant full rights from day one.
As many as five buses a day leave Warsaw on the 26-hour journey to London via Dover. A one-way ticket costs £40.
Father-of-two Daniel Dolinski told of his dream of a new life in Britain as he stood among 30 gipsies outside pitiful shacks in Mielec, Poland. The town’s 700 Roma are the poorest of the poor — discriminated against and unable to get jobs. Skinheads have daubed swastikas and racist slogans on walls.
Daniel, 27, said: “I can be a labourer in Britain. We’ll be treated better there. The housing is better.
“We want to live like humans. We get £44 a month from the government. There are very few jobs and they all go to Polish people.
“The women make money by doing fortune telling. They make at most £1.50 a time. Roma are attacked by skinheads. The old people can’t walk the streets at night.”
A few doors away, two tiny rooms are home to the Bazalinski family — unemployed dad Ryszard, 28, mum Bozena, 35, and their six children.
They have been to Britain before — living in Liverpool until they were deported last year. Daughter Roksana, 11, was treated for a bowel condition on the NHS.
Ryszard, who sends his family to beg on the streets, said: “We will return to Britain as soon as we can.
“In Liverpool we were given a big house with nine rooms and the children went to school.” Gipsy leader Adam Andrasz, 48, said 50,000 Roma live in Poland — and ALL want to join the 6,000 already in the UK. He admitted: “Roma going to Britain may need some support from the Government. But once they have the education and skill they will work.”
The British embassy in Warsaw has even produced a leaflet for the gipsies. Envoy Tim Simmons, 43, said: “We told the Roma they will be welcomed in Britain if they go there to work and pay taxes.
“But if they have no intention of working they will not be welcomed.”
The EU expansion will welcome 73 million former communist bloc citizens. Poland’s neighbour Slovakia is among the ten nations joining.
It has an estimated 650,000 gipsies — and Roma leaders predict 40 per cent will leave.
Near the town of Kezmarok we found dozens already getting ready.
The gipsy ghetto where 1,200 live in the village of Strane Pod Tatrami is like something out of the Dark Ages. The open sewers and filthy wooden hovels shame a nation about to become Britain’s EU partner. Drinking water is collected in buckets. Men scavenge daily for firewood.
Carpenter Milan Badzo, 28, a dad of two, said: “I am learning English and have saved for the fare.”
Woodcutter Gustav Baco, 37, shares a two-room hut with his wife, four children and their gran. He picks berries and mushrooms to feed his family. He said: “I dream of going to England to work.” Vladimir Badzo, 35, said through an interpreter: “I’ll take my family. I’ll do anything.”
Labour MP Paul Stinchcombe, 41, said last night: “I have written to ministers saying countries that do not improve their living conditions for their Roma people like Slovakia should not be admitted to the EU.”
But the exodus is not confined to gipsies. Other poverty-stricken Eastern Europeans plan to join it.
Warsaw cabbie Mariosz Wozniak, 28, said he wanted to come to Britain, explaining: “My wife Agata and I haven’t had children because we can’t afford to support them.”
What they get in Strane Pod Tatrami HOUSING: Dilapidated wooden shacks. No central heating, no sewerage. No running water. Water is from a communal pipe. The toilets for a village of 1,200 are a series of holes in the ground. Wood is chopped from the forest each day. BENEFITS: Unemployment benefit is £83 a month. Unemployment among the Roma people in the village is 98 per cent. EDUCATION: Schoolchildren walk a six-mile round trip in sub-zero temperatures. They face discrimination in education and jobs. CLIMATE: Winter temperatures down to -20° C. |
What they get in Great Britain HOUSING: Access to council housing. Housing benefit. Hot and cold running water, sewerage and public services. BENEFITS: Income Support of £54.65 a week, Council Tax benefit, extra payments for children and a minimum of £105 a week for pensioners. Work prospects also much improved as UK unemployment is just 4.9 per cent EDUCATION: Multi-ethnic. HEALTH: Free health care. Free vouchers for glasses, free dentistry, free school meals, free milk and vitamins for pregnant women. CLIMATE: Winter temperatures rarely much below -5° C. |
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