Roma settlement residents' situation in Małopolska. Reply of the Ministry of Interior and Administration
Date:
For years, the Commissioner for Human Rights has been actively monitoring the situation and taking measures to protect the rights of individuals belonging to national and ethnic minorities, including the Roma community. The CHR has been increasingly concerned about the social and living conditions of Roma people, particularly Roma women, in the Małopolska region.
Residents of the settlements continue to face difficult social and living conditions that negatively affect all aspects of their lives, including access to the labour market, education and health care, and deepen their exclusion from local community life. This situation has existed for many years and is not improving despite the involvement of the Voivode, the Ministry of Interior and Administration and the CHR.
The Commissioner requests Minister Tomasz Siemoniak for information on the actions taken over the past year and the measures planned to improve the extremely difficult living in the settlements. He inquiries whether the Minister has considered making use of the entitlements provided under the Roma Programme and allocating funds from the special-purpose reserve for the preparation of a social diagnosis of the Roma community in the Koszary settlement and the updating of the social diagnosis of the inhabitants of the Maszkowice settlement. As a next step, he asks whether plans for the comprehensive revitalization of both localities could be commissioned.
In his reply, Minister Siemoniak confirmed that the Ministry of Interior and Administration, together with the Małopolska Voivode and Roma non-governmental organisations, takes action every year and declares its willingness to support local authorities in resolving the situation in Maszkowice and Koszary. However, it should be noted that the budget guaranteed by the Programme remains at a constant level, and the increase in the cost of maintaining and operating, for example, integration day centres, limits the possibility of funding other projects or even leads to their abandonment. In addition, housing projects tend to be the most costly.
On the other hand, transferring more funds to the Małopolskie Voivodeship would negatively affect the implementation of projects planned under the Programme in other voivodeships - with the Małopolskie Voivodeship being the largest beneficiary of the Programme in Poland.
Regarding the Commissioner's proposal to conduct a social diagnosis for the settlements in Koszary and Maszkowice, Minister Siemoniak stated that the Ministry of the Interior and Administration, in cooperation with the Małopolskie Voivode, would assess the possibility of utilizing funds from the special-purpose reserve provided under the Programme. These funds would be allocated to preparing a social assessment of the Roma community in the Koszary settlement and updating the existing social diagnosis of the inhabitants of the Maszkowice settlement.
https://bip.brpo.gov.pl/pl/content/rpo-osiedle-romskie-malopolska-mswia
