Modern ‘slaves’ in the heart of Europe

In the slums more than 10 kilometers from Romania’s capital, Bucharest, smoke is rising day and night from the scrap yards.

In the slums more than 10 kilometers from Bucharest, Roman families specialize in making a living by burning rubbish for metal. The ingredients for burning are varied, from broken computers to electric cables. “I will sell them (after burning product) to metal buyers. We have to work one to two weeks to get a kilo of metal, ”said Mihai Bratu, a Roma person in the village of Sintesti, a suburb of Bucharest. Like many Roman communities across Romania, the slums of Sintesti have long been neglected by the authorities. This place now consists of temporary houses, spontaneous wire grids and trash. Octavian Berceanu, head of the Romanian Environmental Protection Agency, the pollution from the relentless burning scrap sites is becoming excessively serious. He began frequent raids in Roman living areas. He said that residents here can be considered “modern slaves” are under pressure of a mafia-style system. “This is a kind of slavery, because people here don’t have the opportunity to go to school, find jobs in the city, don’t have the basic infrastructure conditions like the official electricity network, clean water or roads. Sipunculus. This ruined their lives, ”said Octavian Berceanu. Mr. Berceanu repeatedly raided the Roman slums to stop burning rubbish for metal. It is illegal to burn garbage in spontaneous landfills. It has also resulted in heavy air pollution for the Bucharest metropolitan area. Police officers prevented a woman from entering an area where people used to burn trash. Romanian riot police are deployed in these raids to support environmental forces. A piece of computer components was seized by Romanian environmental forces in the raid. The doll’s head lies on the ground after a mid-April raid by Romanian environmental forces in Vidra. Romans, also known as Digans, are scattered in many European countries, especially in Eastern and Southern Europe. The poverty rate in this community is much higher than the general average. According to the Borgen Project, 90% of Romans in Romania live at or below the poverty line. Only one in five Roma children attend school. A Roma child playing with scrap copper pieces. “Everywhere in the world, the extremely poor have to rely on meager resources for their livelihoods. This has negative consequences: They have little education, poor facilities and development level is low, “Gelu Duminica, director of a non-governmental organization dedicated to helping the Romans, said. Duminica argues that the government’s targeting of Romans, rather than the large industries or more than a million cars in the capital, Bucharest, shows them as “sacrifices” as part of their marketing campaign Politicians.