Environmental inequality in Europe

Access to water and electricity

While Romani settlements in Poland are distributed throughout the country and less segregated than many areas of Central and Eastern Europe, geographical isolation remains a concern with regards to the access of environmental means of sustenance.^[9]:5 According to a report by RAXEN,

The majority of Roma settlements [in Poland], e.g. in the region of Małopolska are outside other settlements and are deprived of potable water, sewage and roads that allow for ambulance access. The problem also concerns roadblocks to obtaining settlement permits, especially in city centres, which necessarily results in them moving to the outskirts, away from infrastructure that allows for decent living conditions."^[9]:27

According to the study, Romani persons throughout Poland, especially those from the Bergitka subgroup, face ongoing issues with regards to accessing water and utilities^{[9]:5:25–26} which has been attributed to detrimental health conditions and persistently high rates of tuberculosis.^[9]:27

Wrocław

In 2013, an estimated 80–120 persons of Romanian Romani origin were living in two shantytowns in Wrocław.^{[10]:163–5[11]:29[12]:4}

The settlements, which had no heated homes, running water,^[10]:163–5 electricity,^[12]:3 or sewerage,^[11]:28 were constructed using materials salvaged from dumps.^[10]:163–5 These settlements had historical ties to a settlement that existed between 1993 and 1997,^{[10]:163–5[12]:3:5} when the first Romanian Romani came to Wrocław from the city of Făgăraş in search of employment.^[10]:163–5 Residents at the settlement were employed in scrap metal collection.^{[10]:163–5[11]:28–9} At the former Kamieńskiego Street shantytown, there was documentation of waste disposal concerns, raw sewage dumping, and burning of plastic causing pollution.^[12]:5

After receiving a municipal order to evacuate the Kamieńskiego Street shantytown in April 2013, residents wrote a letter to the mayor of Wrocław, Rafał Dutkiewicz.^[10]:163–5 The letter reads:

We feel residents of this city [sic]. We have nowhere to move to. Could we count on support and advice on where else we could settle down? We realize that we might be cumbersome neighbors to the inhabitants of Kamieńskiego St., because there are many of us here and we often ask them for help … If there were any jobs for us, we would gladly take them and dedicate ourselves to the development of and work for the city of Wrocław. What we only ask is, please give us a chance. We want to stay in Wrocław and integrate with the city's society. (Żuchowicz, 2013, p. 2)^[10]:163–5

Citing begging, trespassing, complaints from neighbors, disturbance to the area, and littering, alongside health and sanitation initiatives previously delivered by the city, the Social Affairs Department rejected residents' requests, concluding that clearing of the site was required.^[10]:163–5 In the words of Jupowiecka, the response letter stated that the Roma presence produced an actual epidemiological hazard, and could no longer be tolerated".^[10]:163–5 According to Kostka in 2014, "In Poland this is an unprecedented case, without jurisprudence, and can potentially have a huge impact on the Polish legal system and the image of Poland across Europe (Nomada 2013)."^[11]:29 On July 22, 2015, the Kamieńskiego Street settlement was demolished.^[13]

Małopolska

In the region of Małopolska, there have been documented cases of communities lacking clean drinking water, electricity, and sanitation.^[14]:5–11 These issues have been noted by OSCE observers in the villages of Maszkowice, Jazowsko, Koszary, Krosnica, and Czarna Góra.^[14]:5–11 In Maszkowice and Jazowsko, there have been documented allegations by local residents of theft of garden vegetables and unauthorized wood harvesting by Romani residents.^[14]:5–11

Evictions

On October 30, 2012, 150 people were evicted from their homes in the district of Nižné Kapustníky (Kosice).^[6] Further evictions were planned for 200 people from the Pod Hrádkom neighbourhood of Prešov under similar legal circumstances.^[6] According to the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC), these evictions are part of a growing trend in the Slovak Republic in which authorities are justifying evictions by designating Romani settlements as "communal waste".^[6] Over 400 mayors of towns and villages in Slovakia have joined a movement by the name of Zobudme sa! (Let's Wake Up!) which, according to the ERRC, "aspires to coordinate a targeted programme of demolition aimed at Roma settlements by defining them as waste dumps".^[6]

Rudňany

The region of Slovenské Rudohorie has a long industrial history, which includes gold, silver, copper, and other metal mining and processing, and has been listed as being one of the ten most polluted regions in Slovakia.^[7]:73The region and mine tailings is contaminated with mercury, acidic water from sulfide, and lead.^[7]:74–6

In the village of Rudňany, there has been a Romani settlement situated on top of the abandoned factory site of Zabíjanec^[7]:69 since the 1970s; after the site's closure in 1965^[7]:80 it was likely settled with the "silent approval" of socialist authorities.^[7]:77 As of 2011, 640 persons lived there,^[7]:72 in conditions severely contaminated by heavy metals.^[7]:82 Children at Zabíjanec are at particularly high risk of health effects, such as neurological damage.^[1]:21

By 2003, the number of industrial workers in the mines and processing plants had decreased from 2,500 at the start of the 1990s to 150.^[7]:71 In 2010, 1,700 out of Rudňany's 3,775 inhabitants were Romani, who are highly segregated from the majority population.^[7]:72 Many also live in the Pätoracké shantytown; according to Filčák, approximately 570 Romani were living there in 2011.^[7]:72 These Romani communities largely settled in the area during the 1950s to work as miners.^[7]:76

In the 1970s, subsidence of structures above the mine shafts, along with encroaching contaminated mine waste compelled authorities to relocate residents from Pätoracké to new homes in Spišská Nová Ves and Smižany.^[7]:78 However, the Romani shantytowns were not relocated, nor were new Romani migrants prevented from settling in the area.^[7]:78 In 2007, in response to a sinkhole incident in 2001,^[7]:78 257 residents were relocated to new apartments, which while outside the landslide and subsidence danger zones, are still surrounded by dumps of mine waste, while also continuing to be ethnically segregated.^[7]:79 As of 2009, over 300 people remained in the danger zone, living in a shantytown without sewers, sewage treatment, running water, or garbage collection. Meanwhile, residents from the main village of Rudňany municipality regularly dispose of household waste in an unauthorized dump 300 meters below the Pätoracké settlement.^[7]:135

Krompachy

Krompachy smelter

The Romani settlement in Krompachy has 400 residents,^[7]:135 largely former employees of the nearby copper smelter.^[7]:133 Separated from the town of Krompachy by a road and a stream, the settlement is located at the foot of a hill next to the smelter.^[7]:133 Only several apartments in the settlement are occupied by non-Romani families, most of whom left the area over time.^[7]:133–4 The Krompachy smelter has been producing electrolytic copper in Slovakia since 1937, and is the only facility of its kind in the country.^[7]:133–4 According to measurements taken by the Slovak Academy of Sciences, the area is highly contaminated with arsenic, lead, zinc, and copper, and there is unsubstantiated evidence to suggest that contamination may be more severe in the Romani settlement than in the town proper.^[7]:134

Trebišov

In a Romani neighbourhood in the town of Trebišov, there is a slaughterhouse and meat-processing plant. These facilities are the source of odours and waste which is stored in open containers in an unfenced location that is frequented by Romani people in search of food. Due to the rapid rate of decay of this unrefrigerated waste, especially during the summer, it poses a significant health risk for those who consume it, while also attracting insects and rats.^[7]:135

Svinka River Watershed

Romani settlement near Chminianske Jakubovany, Prešov

The Romani shantytowns of Hermanovce, Jarovnice, and Svinia are located within several kilometres of each other within the upper Svinka River Watershed;^[7]:99 all three have histories of being subject to flooding.^[7]:120 Jarovnice, which has an unofficial population of 5,000,^[7]:109 is one of the largest shantytowns in Slovakia.^[7]:110 Residents do not have access to safe, potable water.^[7]:110 Water quality in all three settlements has been problematic, particularly with regards to increasing nitrates contamination from industrial fertilizers used by agricultural activity in the region.^[7]:110–20 In 1998, 47 people died in floods in the region; 45 of the victims were Romani, and 42 of them were from Jarovnice. One person from Svinia died, and 500 people from the shantytown had to be evacuated.^[7]:123 In Hermanovce, there is a Romani shantytown of 300 persons^[7]:107 located on low-lying land with a high water table in between forks of the Svinka River;^[7]:107–8 meanwhile, the village dump is located in close proximity above the shantytown, and is not lined to prevent leachate contamination, causing seepage into the community.^[7]:108–9 According to Filčák, the construction of a landfill "in close proximity to the Roma settlements, without involvement of the affected people is almost a 'classical' example of the environmental injustice in both distributional and procedural aspects".^[7]:129

In the words of Anna Husarova, a Romani woman from Jarovnice, the location of these settlements in relation to flood vulnerability has a historical context:

[After the war] survivors had to settle next to forests, in the middle of fields or on riverbanks. These were the only places where they were allowed to settle down and start over. They built huts and began to call them flats. No attention was paid to them, and they were given no help.^[7]:104

Other Romani settlements in Chminianske Jakubovany, Petrova, and Markovce have also experienced vulnerability to flooding.^[7]:152

Access to water

According to the UNECE pilot country reports on Equitable Access to Water (2013), 32% of Romani households in Ukraine have indoor water access, while 18% derive their water from open-air sources such as streams.^{[15]:21[16]:89}

Kiev

According to a 2014 report by the Romani women's rights organization Chiricli, two large Romani settlements in Kiev were identified as having severely substandard living conditions.^[17]:20 One of the settlements, situated in Holosiivo, was situated on top of a former dump.^[17]:20 This site is reportedly known to have formerly interned "radioactive substances dangerous to human health". In addition to potential hazards regarding the radioactive history of the site, the settlement was approximately forty minutes away from the nearest source of water, so residents had to use water from a nearby sewage-contaminated stream.^[17]:20

Zakarpats'ka Oblast

Serious issues regarding access to clean water and sanitation for Romani communities (tabors) in Zakarpats'ka oblast have been documented.^[18]

Near the village of Myrcha, 35 kilometres northeast of Uzhorod, there is an isolated Romani settlement of 150 persons located next to a forest.^[18] The community does not have access to clean drinking water.^[18] Residents derive their drinking water from rainfall collection; during drier months, the residents have no choice but to collect water from a stream that allegedly "smells like chemicals", according to residents interviewed by the European Roma Rights Center.^[18] Authorities for the main village of Myrcha have cited legal and logistical challenges as barriers to providing water infrastructure to the settlement.^[18] In the words of the mayor, when interviewed by Szilvasi and Novrotskyy about improving water access for the Romani tabor:

We want to help them, but the problem is the Ukrainian law, the tabor is beyond the village, we first need to include them in the cadaster (…) this [building the well] would need a geological investigation as well and involve much bureaucracy. The paper work would be greater than the work itself, and precludes us from even starting such a project.^[18]

Outside Berehove, an estimated five to six thousand Romani persons live in a settlement with limited to no access to clean drinking water, and with no access to sewerage.^[18] There are three public taps available, however they are usually either turned off or non-functional.^[18] According to Szilvasi and Novrotskyy, a major part of the problem is the alleged corruption of the "baron" system, whereby unelected individuals from the Romani community are designated by municipal authorities to steward the water and sanitation infrastructure.^[18] Barons are granted significant sums of money for their role, with no system of oversight in place to ensure that services are delivered.^[18] The payouts are not tied to any quantitative water consumption by residents of the Romani community, resulting in a system where barons are effectively paid to neglect water and sanitation infrastructure.^[18]

In Uzhorod, several thousand Romani persons live at five separate settlements throughout the city.^[18] Water and sanitation access varies, with some houses and neighborhoods having better services than others.^[18] Between 2013 and 2016, three of the tabors received new access to formal water utilities, although access often does not reach all houses due to limited infrastructure and low water pressure.^[18] Issues of water affordability for some residents persist, and the lack of reliable access has been documented as an ongoing fire hazard.^[18]

Near Muchaceve, a Romani settlement of five thousand persons was serviced by a high-risk water supply that was contaminated and subject to major leakage.^[18] Following a hepatitis epidemic in the community in 2013, tests were ordered to track the origin of the outbreak.^[18] The water supply was confirmed as the source of the pathogens and was promptly shut off.^[18] No replacement water source was provided by the municipality.^[18] By 2016, a new above-ground pipe was constructed "with the support of international donors" to supply the settlement.^[18] In contrast to nearby Muchaceve, which receives water services 24 hours a day, the Romani settlement only receives water for four hours a day.^[18]

In Chop, both the Romani as well as majority-culture communities face issues regarding water resource sustainability.^[18] The city of Chop, as of 2016, is currently experiencing a dispute involving the Ukrainian national railway company, Ukrainian Railways.^[18] The state-owned corporation owns the entire water distribution infrastructure of Chop, and is responsible for its maintenance.^[18] Persistent issues of water contamination, leakage, and corrosion have reportedly been seriously neglected, prompting the municipality to attempt to take over ownership of the waterworks system.^[18] The Romani settlement on the outskirts of the city has particularly limited access to water; even the houses that are connected to the utility receive such low-pressure in the pipes that residents rely on carrying water by hand from nearby wells.^[18]

Donetsk and Luhansk Oblast

According to a 2014 report by Chiricli, the situation for Romani persons within Ukraine's "Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) Zone" (Donetsk and Luhansk Oblast) was dire.^[17]:33 Most Romani residents did not have reliable access to water, electricity, or food.^[17]:33 According to one woman from Makiivka, Romani residents would sometimes not be able to access water for as long as five days.^[17]:33

Crimea

According to Chiricli, most Romani homes in Crimea, including the city of Simferopol, did not, as of 2014, have access to water or electricity.^[17]:25

Kharkiv

In 2015, Romani refugees in Kharkiv from Sloviansk were reportedly directed to live in severely damaged, previously abandoned housing with no water or electricity.^[19]

Pata Rât dump and chemical waste site

Cluj landfill, Pata Rât.

In Pata Rât, Cluj County, Romani persons scavenge from a dump as their primary source of income.^[3]:65 As of 2013, it was estimated that 1,500 people were living at the site in extreme poverty; in the 1960s, only four families were documented as living there.^[5]:392 Today, there are a total of four separate settlements at the Pata Rât dump; 42% of residents were moved to the site by local authorities.^[5]:392 The overwhelming majority of residents are from the Romani minority,^[5]:392 many of whom work at the site in slave-like conditions of indentured or bonded labour^[5]:400 while the Romanian government and private contractors maintain ownership of the waste.^[20] Journalists are unwelcome at the site, where filming is strictly prohibited.^[20]

According to Enikő Vincze, "the formation of the Cluj landfill as a space of precarious and stigmatized housing and labour, is a site of environmental racism".^[5]:391 Predominantly Romani neighbourhoods from throughout the city of Cluj have been evicted and relocated to the dump since 2002.^[5]:394 Many different Romani subgroups, further divided by family lines, have been settled into an area near the dump on Cantonului Street, causing inter-community tensions and violence.^[5]:394 In 2010, 300 residents of Coastei street were evicted and resettled at the dump near a chemical waste site.^{[5]:394, 402[20]} The newly vacated neighbourhood was subsequently transferred, for free, to the Archbishop of Feleac and Cluj for the purpose of constructing a campus for students of Orthodox Theology at the Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj.^[5]:402

In spite of the traumatic nature of the relocation,^[5]:402 the Romani community of Coastei Street, which was well integrated in the city and closely connected with urban services, engaged in organized efforts to maintain their social connections to Cluj (such as sending their children to their old schools in the city, and by organizing to ensure access to public transit).^{[5]:394, 402} With support from NGO's such as the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC), Working Group of Civil Organizations (gLOC), and Amnesty International, these efforts, which included protests in Cluj, culminated in the formal acquisition of land at Pata Rât.^[5]:394 On January 7, 2014, Cluj-Napoca County Court (Tribunal) ruled that the eviction and relocation from Coastei Street was illegal, ordering city authorities to compensate the Romani community for damages, and to also provide compensation for the inadequate housing situation caused by the relocation.^[21]

Miercurea Ciuc

In 2004, authorities in the city of Miercurea Ciuc relocated 100 Romani persons to a site with 12 shacks next to a sewage treatment plant, despite sanctions from the Romanian National Council for Combating Discrimination and the European Court for Human Rights.^[3]:65 The relocated persons at the settlement were only granted access to four public toilets in the settlement, and only one source for potable water.^[3]:65 Insufficient barriers allowed children to access industrial equipment near the site, posing safety hazards.^[3]:80 The plant also emits toxic gases, where warning signs posted surrounding the site explicitly state "Attention! Toxic gas."^[1]:25–26 Medically unconfirmed reports from residents claim that two infants have died as a result of the gases.^[1]:25

The settlement was only accessible by dirt road, with no public transportation. By 2010, 150 persons were living at the site.^[3]:80 The settlement was originally mandated to be temporary in nature, yet by 2010 it had been there for five years.^[3]:80 At another settlement near Miercurea Ciuc, 25 people were documented in 2010 as living at or near a garbage pit near a stray dog facility, outside city limits.^[3]:81 The inhabitants of this unnamed settlement did not have access to public transportation for sending their children to school; the sole source of employment was scavenging through garbage; and many of the inhabitants were documented as not having identity cards, making it impossible to access social insurance and subsidized health care.^[3]:81

Baia Mare chemical plant

On June 1, 2012, hundreds of Romani from the Craica ghetto of Baia Mare were forcibly relocated by local authorities to a former chemical laboratory at a decommissioned chemical factory.^[22] Many observers viewed the relocation as an effort by Mayor Cătălin Cherecheș to gain popularity among racist elements of the electorate leading up to elections nine days later.^[22] This incident followed the 2011 construction of a six foot high wall, also instigated by Cherecheş, to encircle a Romani neighbourhood in Baia Mare.^[22] Cherecheş has stated that living conditions would be favourable to the Romani at the chemical plant compared to Craica, despite the former factory having a reputation among Romanians as a "plant of death" due to its status as the second-most polluting chemical facility in the country.^[22]

Within several hours of arriving on site, 22 Romani children and two adults began to exhibit symptoms of chemical poisoning, resulting in a major response by emergency personnel and evacuation of the sick to hospital.^[22] It is believed the poisoning was caused by containers of chemical substances which had been abandoned at the property.^[22] Shortly afterwards, on June 3, the mayor's mother, Viorica Cherecheş, also a physician and the director of a local hospital, arrived on scene with a police presence, and ordered the relocated Romani to collect, without any safety equipment, all of the remaining chemical containers.^[22]

According to Marian Mandache, executive director of the Romani rights organization Romani CRISS, it is suspected that the action was to remove evidence of wrongdoing.^[22] On June 7, 36 Romani and non-Romani NGO's signed a letter to Romanian Prime Minister Victor Pona regarding the relocation, and held a protest outside the Romanian parliament.^[22]

Other resettlements

In 2007, the city of Dorohui-Centrul Vechi displaced 14–15 Romani families following the demolishment of a housing complex. These individuals were then planned to be relocated to a social housing facility located close to a wastewater treatment plant and an industrial estate.^[1]:25 Also in 2007, with funding from the European Commission (which has a financing policy that prohibits exclusionary forms of segregation) plans were developed to construct 20 houses for Romani within an industrial zone in Constanța, with no access to nearby schools, limited transportation, and no community facilities.^[1]:25 Similar resettlements of Romani residents to environmentally problematic locations have taken place in Piatra Neamt, Episcopia Bihor, Bucharest, and Salaj Silmeul Silvaniei, of which the former two cases had residents located near and on top of garbage dumps, respectively.^[1]:26

Fakulteta

In the Fakulteta district of Sofia, a Romani ghetto estimated at 60,000 residents (the official figure is 15,000), housing is predominantly substandard, public transit is minimal, water supply and sewerage is limited, and the electrical network is inadequate and subject to frequent failures.^[23]:33–34 In the poorest section of Fakulteta, Glavova mahala, only one water outlet exists for 200 families.^[1]:42 Until June 2003, medical services in the community were "non-existent".^[1]:40 Because the city of Sofia does not provide garbage collection services, residents regularly burn their garbage and children have been documented burning old tires, causing them to be exposed to toxic gases which may contain carcinogens such as dioxins.^[1]:42 Another concern is the illegal dumping of solid and hazardous waste.^[1]:42 Construction firms regularly dump potentially toxic waste in Fakulteta to skirt disposal regulations; a former green space in the settlement has been converted into an illegal disposal site.^[1]:42

Stolipinovo

In the Romani settlement of Stolipinovo in Plovdiv, residents had their electricity shut off by the private Austrian utility company EVN Group in February 2002, due to the community's cumulative failure to pay utility bills since the early 1990s.^[23]:35 Following the shutdown, protests and confrontations with police ensued, and the entire settlement had its electrical access reduced to the hours of 7pm to 7am, causing significant challenges for food storage and preparation.^[23]:35 Babourkova argues that this incident is "a clear-cut case of distributional injustice towards the Roma population of Stolipinovo leading to a disproportionate health burden for local residents".^[23]:35–36

Gazela Settlement

Fire near Romani settlement in Belgrade

An unplanned Romani settlement called Gazela (Karton City) was located in Belgrade, Serbia near a railway underneath the Gazela Bridge, one of the main highway access points to the city.^[3]:89–91 It was dismantled in 2010.^[3]:92

The "We clean Serbia" campaign

Between 2009 and 2013, a national government-supported environmental campaign took place under the name "We clean Serbia".^[27]:2 The campaign identified so-called "wild dumps" (open-air landfills with poor environmental controls) as the most significant pollution source in Belgrade, and sought to address ecological issues surrounding these dumps.^[27]:2

As part of the "We clean Serbia" campaign, the city government of Belgrade displaced 17 Romani slums that were on or near the dumps, which were formally classified as "unhygienic settlements".^[27]:2 These informal settlements, where residents worked as waste pickers, were largely the direct result of the Yugoslav wars—especially the Kosovo war—as most of the residents came to inhabit these settlements as internally displaced persons (IDP's), refugees, or repatriated refugees.^[27]:2 An estimated 75% of recycled materials in Serbia are gathered by informal waste pickers; however, this activity is illegal.^[27]:5

Over 2,800 slum residents were displaced,^[27]:2 half of whom were settled into initially "temporary"^[27]:3 shipping containers on the outskirts of Belgrade; the other half were evicted from Belgrade altogether.^[27]:2 The container settlements have been criticized by economic anthropologist Eva Schwab, who has argued that social services provided to residents are tied to problematic "contracts of use" which require residents not to store scavenged materials near their containers, and to be employed by the Public Utility Service for its own recycling programmes.^[27]:3 Under this system, Romani who do not comply are denied social services (such as education for their children) and face removal from their dwelling.^[27]:3 Municipal governments in Belgrade have also complained of poor infrastructure in the container settlements and have documented failure of low-quality water pipes, which has resulted in flooding that has caused significant disruption for neighbouring communities.^[27]:4–5

Deponija

As of 2007, close to 1,000 persons in Belgrade were inhabiting the Romani settlement of Deponija (which means "dumping site" in Serbian).^[1]:43 The settlement had been established in the 1970s situated on top of a former dump, which was officially shut down, gradually, in the 1980s.^[1]:43 Polluting factories surround the settlement.^[1]:43 The primary livelihood of residents was recycling from garbage trucks hired to dump in the community, an activity which frequently led to the unintended accumulation of non-recyclable waste in the settlement.^[1]:44 The community lacked clean water, sewage treatment, and utility connections.^[1]:43

Nikšič-Trebejsa & Železova

Situated near the city of Nikčić is one of the most populous Romani settlements in Montenegro.^[28] The settlement is isolated from the city, yet located between a steel production facility which emits hazardous pollutants^[28] and an iron ore mine.^[15]:27 According to a 2017 European Roma Rights Centre report, "The air and land in the settlements is permanently contaminated by iron ore dust from passing trucks."^[15]:27

Konik 2

Konik 2 is a camp for internally displaced persons from Kosovo of Romani origin, situated on the outskirts of the Montenegrin capital, Podgorica.^[15]:27 In spite of oversight from the UNHCR and Italian Red Cross, as of 2014 the camp lacked basic access to safe, clean drinking water and sanitation, and has been serviced by only one water tap.^[15]:27

Prilep and Tetovo

In the Romani settlement of Prilep in Macedonia, there is no working sewage system.^[1]:37 A similar situation exists in a Romani settlement in Tetovo, where there is no clean water, electricity or sewerage, and high rates of disease.^[1]:37

Skopje

As of 2016, along the Vardar River in central Skopje, Macedonia, there is a Romani settlement of approximately two hundred persons who do not have safe access to clean drinking water.^[15]:27 Sewerage and sanitation services do not exist, and garbage accumulation is a concern.^[15]:27 The pump used to provide water from the Vardar River had previously been used for agricultural purposes, and has repeatedly tested positive for contaminants.^[15]:27

Veles

Veles, Macedonia.

For thirty years until 2003,^[29] 700 mostly Romani families in the town of Veles, Macedonia, were exposed annually to 62,000 tons of zinc, 47,300 tons of lead, and 120,000 tons of sulphur dioxide from a nearby smelting plant.^[1]:29 Despite opposition from experts advising the project, the smelter was built 300 meters from the houses of 60,000 people.^[30] Frequently, newborns in the town were diagnosed with cancer, respiratory or blood issues, lung disease, and heart disease.^[1]:29 In 2005, Veles pediatrician Rozeta Bosilkova stated "My patients do not respond well to any treatment, even for the common cold. This is because their defence mechanisms have been badly eroded."^[30] According to the Association for the Protection of Future Generations of Veles, the children of two families were tested with lead levels between five and seven times normal concentrations.^[30]

Due to concerns over food contamination, in 2001 the mayor of Veles requested that all agricultural and cattle farming operations be shut down.^[1]:29 In 2005, one doctor working in the town described the situation as resembling a "horror film", stating "Babies are being born with entire organs missing. The deformities are frightening."^[30]

Following proposals to re-open the smelter in 2006 by Metrudhem DOOEL Skopje, a series of protests and court battles took place.^[29] In 2014, the City of Veles deleted the plant from its Detailed Urban Plan, effectively shutting down the operation permanently, which was legally possible due to the plant having been closed for three years prior.^[29] Severe pollution from 1.7 million tons of slag remain; as of 2016, the Macedonian firm Ekocentar has won a contract to mine the slag for zinc, lead, and cadmium.^[29]

Tirana, Lake Area

According to the European Roma Rights Centre, as recently as 2015 there was a large Romani settlement built above waste landfill on the outskirts of Tirana in Municipality 11 situated next to a "poisonous Tirana city lake".^[15]:27 In absence of a reliable water system, residents obtained water from a private seller.^[15]:27 During the frequent absences of this service, residents would obtain water from the lake, in spite of health concerns regarding its toxicity.^[15]:27 Following an alleged robbery of a German tourist by a Romani individual from the area, the settlement was evicted in 2015.^[15]:27

According to the United Nations Development Program's 2011 Regional Roma Survey, 30% of Romani households in Albania did not have access to a "piped, public water supply and remained dependent on water where the quality was not tested by the competent public authorities".^[15]:21

Mitrovica lead poisoning disaster

During the 1999 war in Kosovo, Romani communities did not align militarily with Serbian or Albanian forces during the ethnic-based conflict.^[31][32] As a result, four-fifths of the Romani people in Kosovo were violently expelled from their homes.^[4]:239 NATO did not intervene.^[4]:239 In total, 100,000 Romani Kosovars were displaced.^[33] 50,000 fled to the European Union; however, due to their legal status as internally displaced persons, they were not legally allowed to freely leave the territories of the former Yugoslavia.^[31]

The UNHCR relocated five hundred displaced Romani from Mitrovica to a camp in northern Kosovo^[4]:209 located on top of an abandoned lead tailings site at the former Trepča mining complex in Kosovska.^[31][32][33] In 2005, the World Health Organization stated that "the worst environmental disaster for children in the whole of Europe" was happening, declaring the camps unfit for human habitation and in need of immediate evacuation.^[4]:209 Prior to the war, the Romani community in Mitrovica was economically active. According to Skender Gushani of the Association for the Protection of Roma Rights Mitrovica

Trepča metallurgy facility

We [the Romani of Mitrovica] had shops, a market, restaurants, our own local government council with representatives, and we maintained our culture and traditions. We didn't have to go to town for anything because here we had everything we needed. In our neighbourhood we had technical equipments [sic], car repair shops and masons ... 6000 of us had jobs at Trepca, the battery factory of Zvecan, where we smelted lead. There were also some among us, about 20 of us, who are well-educated and worked in the local government council.^[31]

According to Avdula Mustafa, an activist with the Roma and Ashkalia Documentation Center, the UNHCR promised that the refugee camps in Kosovska were only temporary, and would be closed within 45 days.^[31] However, the UNHCR added a second and third camp, indicating no intention of relocating from the site.^[31] The names of the three camps were Cesmin Lug, Kablare, and Osterode.^[31] These camps were located on or near 500 tonnes of toxic waste.^[31] Across the River Ibar, there is a further 100 million tonnes of toxic slag,^[31] a legacy of mining and smelting activities at the Trepča complex whose operations spanned from 1927 to 2000.^[31]

At these new settlements, living conditions were severely substandard. Constructed by the UNHCR in collaboration with Action by Churches Together, houses on the toxic sites were built with lead-painted boards,^[33] no working sewerage system, and no reliable sources of running water.^[31] Residents lived in fear of violence from neighboring non-Romani communities, restricting their freedom of movement and ability to leave the camps.^[31]

In 2000, the World Health Organization conducted the first round of blood tests of residents in the camps. Blood lead levels were so high that the WHO recommended immediate evacuation of the camps, as well as fencing off the sites to prevent future exposure.^[33] In 2005, the WHO conducted further tests which determined that levels of lead in the blood of children from the camps were the highest ever recorded among humans.^[31]

Tests for lead poisoning among 60 children were administered by Dr. Miljana Stojanovich, a doctor working for the Institute of Public Health in Mitrovica, who later stated "I haven't heard of results like this from anywhere else in the world...such high lead-levels in blood from such a small area."^[33] The tests determined that most children had blood lead levels higher than 65 micrograms per deciliter, the highest Dr. Stojanovich's instruments could measure.^[33] Test samples sent to a lab in Belgium were re-taken in order to verify if such levels were even possible; the results confirmed that children tested held the highest concentrations of blood lead in medical literature.^[32] 10 micrograms per deciliter is the threshold at which brain damage begins, including IQ loss, according to Dorit Nitzan, Director of WHO Serbia, who has stated that the camps constitute "one of the most serious public health disasters in modern Europe".^[31]

Trepça's factory ruins

In spite of concerns over lead exposure, the UNHCR decided to keep the camps open.^[33] Shortly after receiving the 2000 test results, the UN built a jogging track and basketball court between two of the settlements, naming the area the "Alley of Health".^[33] Signs in poorly translated English posted at the site by the UNHCR read

ALLEY OF HEALTH – LENGTH OF ALLEY – 1500 METERS – INHALE THE ODOUR OF HEALTH – THERE ARE CHALLENGES AWAITING FOR YOU – WIN – SPIRIT IS HEALTHY IN HEALTHY BODY^[33]

In the opinion of Ilija Elezovich from the Kosovo Health Authority during a 2005 interview, "the danger is so great that it threatens to destroy one full generation of Roma children ... they [UNHCR] made a catastrophic mistake by building these camps. Nobody cared about the danger of this location. This is very tragic for everybody, but especially for the Roma inhabitants."^[33]

According to a 2008 and subsequent 2009 interview with Avdula Mustafa, the UNHCR responded to intense international attention toward the case by publicly promoting a plan to move residents to a former French military barracks.^[31] However, this proposed site was only 50 meters away from one of the original settlements, and thus of minimal improvement in terms of environmental health effects.^[31] Romani activists such as Mustafa have speculated that the UNHCR was attempting to pressure residents into returning to their former homes, despite grave fears over their personal safety.^[31] Concern related to these allegations grew following withdrawals of international assistance including emergency medications used to mitigate lead poisoning among children and pregnant women.^[31] By 2005, 29 deaths had been recorded in the camps.^[33] By 2012, that number had risen to approximately 100, most of them children.^[32] In 2012, 100 families were moved off the contaminated site, but 40 families remained.^[32]

The UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) has granted itself diplomatic immunity^[34] claiming it cannot be held legally accountable for its actions.^[33] However, a lawsuit was initiated by the European Roma Rights Centre in 2006 with the European Court of Human Rights.^[34] All children conceived in the camps have irreversible brain damage.^[33]

Henkel Terosonstrasse Sinti settlement

As of 2004, several hundred Sinti families resided on the outskirts of Heidelberg in a settlement by the name of Henkel Terosonstrasse,^[39] in a chemically contaminated area outside city limits.^[35] Most residents were unemployed; both the land and groundwater were believed to be contaminated.^[39] Across the street from the site is a chemical plant operated by Henkel Chemical Company.^[35] In spite of health concerns, as of 2004 no studies on health and environmental effects had been conducted.^[39]

Berlin Land Dreilinden property (Sinti camp)

Since 1995, authorities in Berlin have operated a user-fee camping facility for seasonal Sinti workers on the Dreilinden property.^[35] The facility houses up to 200 persons^[38]:39 and is a source of concern due to its location on the outskirts of Berlin, constructed along 100 meters of railway line.^[35] Housing conditions are poor, while utilities and infrastructure is minimal.^[35]

Georgwerderring Sinti settlement

In the mid-1980s, authorities selected a former toxic waste dump as the location for a new Sinti settlement by the name of Georgwerderring on the outskirts of Hamburg, in spite of the site having been deemed unfit for human habitation during the mid-1970s.^[39] Home to at least 200 persons,^[39] residents were not informed of the site's history.^[36]:177 As of 2004, there were concerns that rising groundwater may have forced toxins to the surface and contaminated the land and air, sparking fears among some medical experts that birth defects, stillborns, and certain illnesses could be dramatically on the rise.^[39] As of 2004, the settlement was isolated, poorly served by public transportation, and located in close proximity to the new Hamburg city dump posing further ongoing health concerns.^[36]:178

Kistnersgrund Sinti settlement

In the 1970s, the Kistnersgrund Sinti settlement was constructed in Bad Hersfeld, Hesse. Located on the outskirts of the city, it was situated on top of a garbage dump.^[36]:178 Following a hepatitis outbreak in the early 1980s, authorities relocated the community to a new settlement called Haunewiese, where residents have experienced substandard housing conditions.^[36]:178

Gorleben exploratory mine for storing uranium waste

Barry's Council's Gander site

One location of particular concern has been Barry's Council's Gander site in West London, inhabited by Irish Travellers. As of 2004, the site was situated near a highway and next to an aggregate concrete factory, which was built in 1999, prior to the Travellers being moved onto the site by local authorities.^[43]:45 One survey determined that approximately half the residents felt that the site was unhealthy; since moving to the site, residents have reported skin rashes and abnormalities, asthma, and breathing difficulties among infants.^[43]:45–6 One observer has stated

Illegal waste disposal at Traveller site, Hull.

Maybe the asthma has a connection with the factory because you couldn't even see through the windscreen [on her car] with the dust on it. The general health of the Travellers on site is pretty good ... a lot of them are registered with the medical centre.^[43]:46

Communication between factory management and Traveller residents over health concerns and industrial operations plans has been described as being insufficient.^[43]:45 The settlement was subject to irregular or nonexistent garbage collection services, poor sewerage, rat infestations, and fire hazards.^[43]:46 Residents asked for either the factory to be shut down, or for themselves to be relocated to a different area of Gander.^[43]:45 At one meeting at the site in 2001, residents expressed a readiness to leave their traditional nomadic lifestyle by moving into houses, citing restrictive laws on travelling, frequent evictions, allegations of constant police harassment, and deteriorating health conditions at the Barry site.^[43]:45 Dr. Colm Powers, who conducted a comprehensive report in 2004 on the social and health situation of Irish Travellers in England, has argued that pressure on Travellers to abandon their nomadic lifestyle constitutes a pressing human rights issue.^[43]:46 According to Powers, the pressure to settle is twofold, stemming from the perceived criminalization of travelling, combined with the arguably poor quality of camping locations.^[43]:46 Powers argues the process of settling into permanent housing is a traumatic experience for many Travellers, who can experience cultural challenges and further social marginalization. In the view of Powers,

These twin pressures [of criminalization and poor camping sites] gives support to the painful and disturbing process of cultural breakdown that leads to assimilation into the most marginalised and excluded sections of society. Nomadism is usually recognised by settled society as the sole (or salient) ethnic qualifier for Travellers, so its criminalisation and eradication erroneously signals the cultural assimilation of Travellers and Gypsies. This 'blindness' to the depth, complexity and strength of Traveller culture leaves 'settled' Travellers with little sensitive health and welfare support when they are forced into settled accommodation and it is most needed. The inability or unwillingness of many institutional support agencies to engage actively, supportively and sensitively with settled Travellers is creating a well of discontent among many young settled Travellers that is already evident in the high levels of criminalisation particularly in the settled Irish Traveller population^[43]:46

Discrimination towards Romani and Travellers in Green Belt lands

Dale Farm, prior to eviction

In 2015, community secretary Eric Pickles was found by a high court ruling to be in breach of the 2010 Equality Act.^[44] According to Justice Gilbart, sitting in London, Pickles had "unlawfully discriminated" against Romani communities seeking to establish camping sites in Green Belt lands by systematically delaying and overturning their development proposals.^[44] According to Romani activists, "local councils have consistently failed to earmark land for potential sites in local plans, and many Gypsies and Travellers have bought land, including in the green belt, to develop sites for themselves".^[44] Yet, according to Justice Gilbart, Pickles had created a policy in 2013–2014 that systematically turned down development appeal requests by "Romani Gypsies" and "Travellers".^[44] This policy was found by Justice Gilbart to be a protocol "which discriminated against a racial group".^[44]

The planning minister, Brandon Lewis, responded to the ruling by stating "The government's planning policy is clear that both temporary and permanent traveller sites are inappropriate development in the green belt. Today's judgment does not question that principle."^[44]

The Equality and Human Rights Commission responded to the ruling by stating "We have a duty to protect everyone from discrimination and ensure that the law is applied fairly, consistently and equally for all. We understand the need to be sensitive about green belt development but this should not be used to single out individuals for unlawful discrimination. Planning decisions should be taken on the merits of an application, not the characteristics of the applicant."^[44]

Previously, Eric Pickles, a Conservative cabinet minister, had been accused in 2011 of allowing his department to release a statement which referred to Traveller camps on green belt lands as a "blight".^[45] During an interview on ITV, Pickles stated of the camps that "We inherited a situation where the number of illegal sites had gone up four-fold and what we expect them to do is obey the law like you and I do," he said, continuing "It does not give people the right to come on to a green belt...and to trash it."^[45] Joseph P. Jones, chairman of the Gypsy Council and Yvonne MacNamara, director of the Irish Traveller's Movement respectively, have responded with public statements expressing their view that Pickles' comments were discriminatory and hostile in nature,^[45] with Jones stating that Pickles' statements constituted an example of how the Romani and Traveller communities are often treated by dominant culture as "toxic waste".^[46] According to Jones, the UK government had been applying a discriminatory standard by denying Romani and Traveller development applications, while simultaneously having a history of approving construction of towns such as Milton Keynes, Basildon New Town, and New Ash Green, the latter two of which were, in the words of Jones, "built for the total strangers of the London overflow, on the open countryside or green belt".^[46] In the opinion of Jones,

We [Romani and Travellers] have been constantly pushed out on the periphery of society, through the failures those in local political positions to identify and provide accommodation. This is not new, ever since the Caravans Sites Act of 1960 the Gypsy/Traveller population have constantly seen the goal posts moved, heard those in power, saying this is not the right place for your type. But we never seem to get any directions to a place that is.^[46]

Dale Farm Romani and Traveller settlement

Demolition of house, Dale Farm 2011.

The eviction of Dale Farm in Essex,^[45] a camp settlement formerly home to approximately 1,000 Romani and Travellers on Green Belt land has been highlighted as a case of racially motivated marginalization.^[41]:71 The camp, located on a former scrap metal yard, had been inhabited by Romani and Travellers since the 1960s; however, despite ownership of the land, residents were denied zoning permits to develop the property.^[41]:71 Illuzzi argues that in 2011, "expulsions and legal battle over the status of Dale Farm in the UK highlighted yet another confrontation over the illegality of Roma/Traveller behavior when they legally purchased 'green belt' land and were denied permits from the town council to build on that land. Town councils continue to work against allowing Traveller settlements in or near their towns."^[47]:7 The evictions were completed in 2011 and involved violent clashes with police.^[45]

Historical documentation (Mitcham Common)

Instances of racialized marginalization within an environmental context have been documented in the United Kingdom dating back to the late 1800s. According to Mayall, the district of Mitcham was subject to spatial segregation of transient populations, including Romani and Traveller groups (referred to as "Gypsies"):

As we have noted, certain locales appear to lend themselves to housing a transient population: Mitcham on the borders of South London and Surrey was one such place. By the late 19th century Surrey was a main centre for Gypsies, itinerants and vagrants with an estimated (though probably exaggerated) 10,000 in the county alone, many of whom had been expelled from London through a combination of 'the Metropolitan Police, land agents, sanitary authorities, and building developments.' (Mayall, 1988, pp 158-9).^[48]:67

Smith and Greenfields note the link between poverty, upper-class departure (for the United States context, see white flight) and the demographic presence of Romani and Traveller communities in Mitcham, as well as the economic prominence of environmentally polluting 'dirty industries' within the community. In the words of Smith and Greenfields,

W.J. Bush & Co distillery explosion aftermath.

Mitcham had long been one of the poorest parishes in Surrey and records of Gypsies camping in the area date back to the 1700s. Between the mid-19th and early 20th centuries the area declined in respectability as several landowning families departed and its population grew significantly as outward migration from London increased the population of poor and displaced residents (Smith, 2005, p 67). Of these, Gypsies and itinerants formed a significant minority: the 1881 census records 230 Gypsies and vagrants camping on Mitcham Common … [Mitcham] contained an abundance of market gardens which provided regular seasonal employment with the locality becoming an important site for industry in the early to mid-20th century, particularly the 'dirty industries' such as paint making, chemical works and bone boiling, which had been expelled from inner London by the 1845 Health Act. The importance of Gypsy labour to the area's industry in this period is revealed by Montague, who notes that … when Purdom's [paint and varnish] factory was originally established production had been seasonal, taking place mainly in the winter months when Gypsy and other casual labour employed on the physic gardens during the rest of the year was available at very low rates. (Montague, 2006, p 79)^[48]:67

By 1909, over 190 vans were documented as being situated at Mitcham Common, along with numerous others at sites nearby, in spite of efforts to displace nomadic residents through by-laws such as the Mitcham Common Act of 1891.^[48]:67–8 In the words of Smith and Greenfields, the urban area of Mitcham became a district where

Gypsies had moved into the small terraced houses that were known locally as 'Redskin Village' (in reference to the dark colouring of its inhabitants) by the 1920s. According to Montague, by the 1930's the area had become one of the most disreputable and notorious in the district and was 'associated in the public mind with some of the worst slums in the emerging township' (Montague, 2006, p 113).^[48]:67–8

At 7am on March 30, 1933,^[49] an explosion took place at the W.J. Bush & Co essential oils distillery adjacent to 'Redskin Village', killing a twelve year-old boy and seriously injuring twenty-three others.^[49][50] According to the Merton Memories Photographic Archive, "the explosion brought this community ['Redskin Village'] to an end", although the distillery re-opened and continued operations until 1968, closing after 200 years in the same location.^[50] Images taken of the explosion provide early photographic documentation of an event involving an ethnic minority community in the UK affected by an industrial disaster.

Galway city dump

During the early 1980s, Galway City began to experience significant economic growth. According to Helleiner (2000), "In the early 1950s the central government prompted internationally financed industrial development in the Galway region, and by the mid-1960s the city was specifically targeted for investment and provided with industrial estate (Ó Cearbhill and Cawley 1984: 258-9) ... Galway City has continued to see tremendous economic, demographic, and spatial growth associated with international investment in industry and service sectors and a vigorous tourist trade."^[51]:15 However, according to Helleiner, social and economic inequalities have persisted in the region.^[51]:15

Travellers continue to engage in informal and self-employed labour, particularly metal recycling and car scrapping, as this type of employment supports "an independent and nomadic way of life".^[55] During the 1980s Travellers increasingly gravitated toward casual labour that allowed for greater autonomy than formal labour, motivated in part by the racist conditions of formal labour markets in Ireland.^[51]:145 For employment, Travellers scavenged from the Galway city dump as well as industrial and commercial refuse bins for scrap metal.^[51]:145 Work in the scrap metal trade at the Galway City dump has been described by Helleiner as being exclusively performed by women, working in unsanitary conditions amidst piles of garbage.^[51]:146 In the words of Helleiner, "None of the men engaged in this dangerous activity.^[51]:146

The work at the dump was organized by informal means, as described by Helleiner: "Gaining and keeping a regular position at the dump depended on having close kinship or affinal ties to those already established."^[51]:148 Also, scrap metal collection involved logistical challenges of transporting product, and the need for capital investments such as vehicles.^[51]:147 In spite of the health risks (including cleaning the metal by burning off non-metallic material)^[51]:148 and capital investments entailed in this work, Travellers were economically disadvantaged by fluctuations in prices set from scrap metal merchants.^[51]:149 According to Helleiner

Travellers were in a vulnerable position in this exchange as the prices for scrap were set by larger forces of demand and supply and bore no relationship to the amount of labour involved. There were few ways for Travellers to alter the terms of trade to their advantage. Most, for instance, had little withholding power as they lacked sufficient space on which to stockpile scrap in anticipation of higher prices ... This particular form of 'self-employment,' then, was dependent upon unequal exchanges over which Travellers had little independent control.^[51]:149

Carrickmines fire

At 4:24 AM, October 10, 2015, Dublin emergency services responded to a fire that swept through a trailer at the Carrickmines halting site on Glenamuck Road South.^[56] Ten Travellers, five children and five adults, perished in the blaze.^[56] Fourteen were left homeless. Substandard housing conditions have been cited as potential contributing causes of the fire.^[56] Immediate attempts by survivors to stop the blaze were impossible due to the water at the closest fire hydrant having been shut off by local authorities several months prior.^[57] Following the tragedy, plans were made to rehouse the survivors at a site adjacent to Rockville Drive.^[58] At first, survivors of the fire received public shows of respect.^[59] However, claiming not to have been consulted by their local council, residents of the neighbourhood opposed the resettlement, and protested by blockading excavation machinery from the site.^[58] According to a close non-Traveller family friend of the survivors who organized the funeral,

From Dublin to Wexford, the courtesy from people was just absolutely, it was like a state funeral. Every village that we passed through, people come out, they raised their cups, you know, it was so much respect shown for the family all the way down and, you know, it wasn't ignored, the family couldn't believe that people actually come out and respected them in this manner, but that was all taken away the minute we hit Wexford town because it was in lockdown even down to the local car parks, for the first time in my life, I got an insight on what it was like to be a Traveller.^[59]

The Irish Minister for Equality Aodhán Ó Ríordáin responded to the protest by tweeting, "This disgusting behaviour is not reflective of all settled people."^[58] The Minister for the Environment, Alan Kelly, also commented on the incident, condemning the protest as "wrong".^[58] The survivors were not resettled at the Rockville Drive site. Instead, the survivors were re-housed at an isolated location adjacent to a decommissioned garbage dump^[58][59] in immediate proximity to a high voltage power station,^[59] described by actor and Irish traveller John Connors as a place "that no one could object to".^[59]

In August 2017, the survivors returned to their former living site, and were reportedly pleased with the halting site-style redevelopment carried out by the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, according to a family friend.^[60] As of August 2017, inquests into the fire deaths are currently underway, and survivors have called for a full inquiry into the tragedy.^[60]

Immigrant populations and proximity to hazardous waste facilities

In France, categories of minority and race are not officially recognized, nor are they recorded in census or socio-demographic data, which can make instances of environmental racism difficult to identify.^[61]:59 Only nationality and country of birth are recorded, and only for first-generation migrants; persons born abroad in France are mostly from North and Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as a smaller presence from Eastern Europe.^[61]:64

According to a 2008 study by Lucie Laurian titled Environmental Injustice in France, "towns with high proportions of immigrants tend to host more hazardous sites, even controlling for population size, income, [and] degree of industrialization of the town and region".^[61]:55 In the case of towns which have the highest percentage of residents who are born abroad, there is a significantly higher likelihood for there to be polluted sites nearby.^[61]:68 As stated by Laurian,

The quarter of towns with the highest proportion of persons born abroad (more than 6.3%) are, for example, three times more likely to have illegal dumps, five times more likely to have Seveso ["sites where dangerous, toxic or flammable materials are stored permanently or temporarily"]^[61]:61 and seven times more likely to have Basol ["sites where (1) soil and/or groundwater are either known to be polluted or potentially polluted; (2) pose or can pose risks to persons or the environment; and (3) are the object of public intervention"]^[61]:61 sites than the quarter of towns with the lowest proportion of persons born abroad (less than 1.8%).^[61]:68

Environmental segregation of Romani and Yenish Traveller sites

Romani shantytown in St-Denis, near Paris.

As of 2008, there were 279 halting sites designated for French Travellers (Yenish), a distinct ethnic group in France.^[62]:18 In a RAXEN interview with the National Association of Catholic Travellers, environmental issues were cited as a factor in the segregated conditions found at most Traveller halting sites, which one resident likened to "Indian Reservations".^[62]:43 According to the Association,

Nine times out of ten, these sites are out of town, near rubbish dumps; they are places of 'social relegation'. The association has managed to have certain sites banned that were situated in 'Seveso zones', between motorways and a refinery, seven km from a school etc."^[62]:43

Similar issues exist for Romani communities in France. Most reside in shantytowns and other forms of substandard housing, frequently located far outside city centers without access to social services, health care, utilities, or clean drinking water.^[62]:24 These settlements are often situated on brownfield sites, near highways or other industrialized transportation infrastructure, or squatting on agricultural or forest lands.^[62]:24

Romani settlements and e-waste

There is evidence to suggest that Romani communities in France may be experiencing environmental discrimination through exposure to e-waste contamination. According to a 2010 investigative report by The Ecologist written by Carolyn Lebel, some Romani people in France have been compelled by "poverty and discrimination" to become involved with the scavenging of electronic waste (e-waste), handling an unknown quantity of the 750,000 tonnes of French e-waste that annually disappears into informal disposal and recycling networks.^[63]

Due to allegedly discriminatory employment regulations in France, many Romani find it impossible to gain formal employment.^[63] As a result, many have turned to clandestine recycling operations of e-waste in slums outside large French cities.^[63] At these sites, e-waste is broken into various types of metals, such as aluminum, copper, iron, and lead. Copper is extracted from cables by burning them in open fires, while car batteries are melted down for lead and refrigerators are sent through car crushers without removing cooling agents, which can release up to four tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere per unit.^[63]

According to the observations of Dr. Bernard Moriau, "[The Romani] would work directly above these clouds of black smoke", in reference to Romani people he witnessed working in a forest in the Val d'Oise region near Paris.^[63] In 2008, contamination from cancer-causing heavy metals was found in an evicted Romani camp near Lyon; likewise, this finding was preceded by a 1998 study in Bordeaux, Annecy, and Toulouse.^[63] The study, conducted by Doctors of the World and local NGOs, identified abnormal lead exposure in fifty percent of children at the camps.^[63] Furthermore, one-quarter of the children examined were identified as having lead poisoning.^[63] In a 2010 case, 19 children at a site in Lyon were found to have high blood lead levels.^[63]

According to Dr. Jean-Claude Guiraud, thousands of children in France living at or near illegal recycling sites are at risk of lead exposure, which, according to Guiraud "can cause permanent damage to all the organs including the brain".^[63] In spite of these statistics, the issue, as of 2010, has received little attention from authorities in France.^[63]

Illegal mushroom harvesting

Since 2004, there has been criticism of Romanian and Bulgarian EU citizens who allegedly out-compete French locals in the wild mushroom picking industry.^[64] Eastern European harvesters, a large number of whom are believed to be ethnic Romani, have removed significant quantities of porcini and milk cap (Lactarius deliciosus) mushrooms for export to Spain, allegedly emptying forests of mushroom supplies.^[64] These predominantly Romani pickers have been accused of harvesting improperly, allegedly causing permanent damage to the forest ecosystem and destroying future mushroom yields.^[64]

According to Thomas Kuyper, "professor of fungal ecology and diversity at Wageningen University in the Netherlands", there is no scientific evidence of improper harvesting methods causing damage to future mushroom yields.^[64] Kuyper suggests that the allegations were a result of xenophobia rather than evidence-based observations, and that there is a history of similar accusations in Germany and the Netherlands in response to migrant harvesters.^[64] In Slovakia in 2006, accusations were published claiming that Romani mushroom harvesters in the Tatra region were responsible for an alleged lack of forage for bears.^[7]:126

Large numbers of predominantly Romani workers have been reportedly harvesting without proper licenses (although no documentation exists as to the exact number of whom are ethnic Romani).^[64] According to Jean Louis Traversier of the French Forest Service, an estimated 80 percent of 2013 mushroom harvests in the southeastern Drôme and Ardèche regions were both legally and illegally picked by Bulgarian and Romanian nationals who had crossed into the region from Spain.^[64]

Quality control concerns have been raised by vendors about the traceability of supplies, with fears that unregulated sourcing may pose a health risk for consumers of the mushrooms.^[64] According to facts provided by Traversier, a legal harvest in 2004-2005 involving a Spanish company was followed in later years by unauthorized picking.^[64] In the words of journalist Alissa J. Rubin, in 2013

about a thousand workers from Romania and Bulgaria came into the region by night in minivans or small trucks stacked high with empty boxes ... they parked on narrow local roads and slipped into the forests or hiked to the high plateaus and camped for as long as three weeks, building makeshift campsites and rising in the damp, chilly mornings to hunt for wild mushrooms. They hid their haul in the woods, and trucks came by each evening to pick them up.^[64]

While supplying a high-priced culinary delicacy, wages for illegal mushroom harvesters are extremely low.^[64] In describing the issue of illegal harvesting, Traversier expressed concern for the well-being of the pickers, stating that he felt many of the Romani harvesters were "picking to survive".^[64]

Water access

According to Szilvasi and Zaharieva, a majority of the 17,929 persons in 2015 who were recorded living in unauthorized camps (which are associated with Romani and Traveller residence) throughout France do not have reliable access to clean water.^[65] As of 2016, in Paris there were 21 Romani encampments with a documented lack or absence of water and sanitation services.^[65]

Besançon

According to an ERRC report, the management of a French Traveller (gens du voyage) halting site in Besançon was documented raising water rates above regular prices, which is illegal under French law.^[15]:27 This instance is part of a larger issue with equality in water access at Traveller halting sites, where there have been reports of water access being cut off for persons who miss a payment, a practice which has been illegal under French law since 2015.^[15]:27

Migrant agricultural workers in Southern Spain

Throughout southern Spain, migrant workers from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and South East Europe employed in the agricultural sector have experienced housing and labour conditions that involve racism within an environmental context, producing food for larger European society while facing extreme deprivations.^[75][76][77]

In Murcia, lettuce pickers have complained of having to illegally work for salary by volume for employment agencies, instead of by the hour, meaning they are required to work more hours for less pay, while also experiencing unsafe exposure to pesticides.^[76] Workers have alleged that they have been forced to work in fields while pesticide spraying is active, a practice which is illegal under Spanish work safety laws.^[75][76]

Beginning in the 2000s in the El Ejido region of Andalusia, African (including large numbers of Moroccan) immigrant greenhouse workers have been documented as being faced with severe social marginalization and racism while simultaneously being exposed to extremely difficult working conditions with significant exposure to toxic pesticides.^[76][77] The El Ejido region has been described by environmentalists as a "sea of plastic" due to the expansive swaths of land covered by greenhouses, and has also been labeled "Europe's dirty little secret" due to the documented abuses of workers who help produce large quantities of Europe's food supply.^[77]

Greenhouses at El Ejido

In these greenhouses, workers are allegedly required to work under "slave-like" conditions in temperatures as high as 50 degrees Celsius with nonexistent ventilation, while being denied basic rest facilities and earning extremely low wages, among other workplace abuses.^[75][76] As of 2015, out of 120,000 immigrant workers employed in the greenhouses, 80,000 are undocumented and not protected by Spanish labour legislation, according to Spitou Mendy of the Spanish Field Workers Syndicate (SOC).^[75] Workers have complained of ill health effects as a result of exposure to pesticides without proper protective equipment.^[75][76] Following the killing of two Spanish farmers and a Spanish woman in two separate incidents involving Moroccan citizens in February 2000, an outbreak of xenophobic violence took place in and around El Ejido, injuring 40 and displacing large numbers of immigrants.^[78][79] According to Angel Lluch

For three days on end, from 5 to 7 February, racist violence swept the town with immigrants as its target. For 72 hours hordes of farmers wielding iron bars, joined by youths from the high schools, beat up their victims, chased them through the streets and pursued them out among the greenhouses. Roads were blocked, barricaded and set aflame.^[79]

El Ejido Romani settlement

According to a 2006 report by the Secretariado General Gitano, a wall reportedly surrounded a predominantly Romani neighbourhood in El Ejido, Andalusia, isolating residents from basic services.^[80]:30 In the words of the report,

In 1998, the town council erected a wall in a neighbourhood where many Roma families were living. This wall almost completely isolated the Roma as they were deprived of easy access to public transport and other services. Seven years later, this wall, which was to be provisional, still existed.^[80]:30

Galician Romani settlements

In Galicia, a 2007 study determined that segregated Romani settlements faced disproportionately high exposure to environmental burdens, finding

Around 10 per cent of these [segregated Romani settlements] are located near rubbish heaps, a percentage that is relatively high given that these heaps are currently being dismantled in Spain. Two out of 3 of these sites are located in places where flooding is a serious risk. Forty one per cent of the sites are also in close proximity to heavy car and train traffic. It is also important to add that in 60 per cent of these sites the number of inhabitants is currently increasing, while the population is decreasing in only 15 per cent of them.^{[80]:26–27, 57}

Asperones (Malaga) transitional Romani settlement

Romani settlement, Asperones, Málaga, Spain

In the late 1980s, under the "Plan for the Eradication of Shanty-towns in Malaga", the transitional housing site of Asperones was constructed for Romani in Malaga.^[72]:316 Constructed in close proximity to a former garbage landfill and a cemetery, conditions in the settlement have been described as harmful for its residents, with one 2002 report on the housing situation of Romani in Spain referring to Asperones as "one of the most conflict-ridden and isolated settlements in Malaga".^[72]:316 As of 2015, 1000 residents continued to live in the "transitional" settlement, and 50% have been described as having to rely on scrap metal collection for income.^[81]

El Cascayu transitional Romani settlement

In 2002, 16 Romani families in El Cascayu were relocated under a transitional housing scheme to what has been described by the organization SOS Racismo as a discriminatory, isolated, and environmentally marginalized housing location.^[72]:317 According to SOS Racismo,

... the last housing units built within [the] eradication of marginalization plan in El Cascayu, where 16 families will be re-housed, is a way of chasing these families out of the city. They will live in a place surrounded by a 'sewer river,' a railroad trail, an industrial park and a highway. So far away from education centres, shops, recreational places and without public transport, it will be physically difficult for them to get out of there.^[72]:317

Cañada Real Galiana

Map excerpt of Valdemingómez district, Cañada Real Galiana, Madrid. The long grey strip along Cañada Real Galiana roadway and transhumance trail denotes the 16 kilometre-long, 75 metre-wide shantytown where 8,600 persons reside. Rectangular shapes denote structures.

On the outskirts of Madrid, 8,600 persons inhabit the informal settlement of Cañada Real Galiana,^[73]:16 also known as La Cañada Real Riojana or La Cañada Real de las merinas.^[74]:10 It constitutes the largest shantytown in Western Europe.^[73]:1 The settlement is located along 16 kilometres of a 75 metre-wide, 400 kilometre-long environmentally protected transhumance trail between Getafe and Coslada,^{[73]:2–3[74]:10} part of a 125,000 kilometre network of transhumance routes throughout Spain.^[74]:10 Certain areas of the unplanned and unauthorized settlement are economically affluent, working-class, or middle-class^{[73]:3[74]:12} and are viewed as desirable areas for many (particularly Moroccan immigrants who have faced discrimination in the broader Spanish rental market).^{[73]:9[74]:12} However, much of the Cañada Real Galiana is subject to severe environmental racism,^[73]:8 particularly in the Valdemingómez district of the settlement.^[74]:13–16

In the mid-1990s the Madrid government pursued initiatives to eliminate the shantytowns surrounding the city.^[73]:8 One such shantytown settlement, Los Focos, was the largest in Spain, and also composed predominantly of ethnic Romani (of Spanish nationality).^[73]:8 During this time, the municipal government, under the conservative Popular Party, set out to initiate plans for the relocation of Los Focos to Cañada Real Galiana, where 100 single-storey houses were to be constructed in immediate proximity to the Madrid garbage incinerator,^[73]:8 a dump, and an illegal pig farm.^[71]:4 In the opinion of Gonick,

In such physical proximity, relocated bodies and the city's refuse would face certain, constant coexistence. The blatant disregard for the health and safety of this population betrays the state's racialized vision of their urban futures: like sacks of garbage, these residents represented blight on the city, to be discarded out of sight. Such alliances between bodies and filth are of course ancient tropes in the production of spaces of value and inequality (Douglas 1966; McClintock 1995).^[73]:8

Waste processing facilities near the predominantly Romani settlement of Valdemingómez

Negative publicity led to a cancellation of the relocation program, although by that point, residents were already starting to be relocated^[73]:8 to Valdemingómez.^[71]:4 Currently, Valdemingómez is a low-income yet highly multi-ethnic shantytown.^[74]:13 Located south of Highway E-901 and east of Highway M 50,^[82] Valdemingómez is named after the waste processing, incineration, and dumping facilities which it is adjacent to, and is a site of extreme social marginalization.^[74]:13 An estimated 4,500 trucks a day pass through the main road of the settlement daily en route to the dump and recycling facilities, raising concerns over safety, particularly for children.^[74]:15 There are no sidewalks, traffic lights, or pedestrian crossings along the road, and several children have been killed by trucks.^[74]:15

In 2003, a significant number of Spanish Romani were displaced by the demolition of the Las Barranquilas and El Salobral shantytowns, and subsequently relocated to Valdemingómez.^[74]:14 According to Rubio, the primary economy of Las Barranquilas and El Salobral was the illegal drug trade; the relocation of Romani residents has resulted in an influx of drug traffic to Valdemingómez.^[74]:14 Nearby is the separate settlement of El Gallinero (which is not part of Cañada Real Galiana, despite its proximity) which is composed of migrant Romani from Romania; El Gallinero was settled following a fire which destroyed their previous homes in a distinct district of Valdemingómez.^[74]:14 El Gallinero, which has a population of 400 residents (half of whom are children, many of whom do not attend school) lacks adequate street lighting and access to clean water, and significant numbers of its inhabitants are faced with addictions issues.^[74]:14–15

Children's play area, Valdemingómez district, Cañada Real Galiana

During a 2007 effort by the Madrid government to demolish Cañada Real Galiana, violent clashes between police and residents took place.^[73]:10 Mainstream news publications such as ABC, the official Spanish state media company RTVE, and El Mundo published stories which sensationalized the conditions of the settlement, arguably exaggerating the scale of the drug trade and other criminal activities there, while also making unfounded claims implying potential terrorist activity among residents,^[73]:10–12 allegedly portraying the settlement as a site of "racial difference with dangerous others".^[73]:12

In the context of the 15 M movement and an increasingly unaffordable and inaccessible housing market, many people in Spain identified with the struggles of Cañada Real Galiana residents, and activism surrounding the community received significant support from individuals and groups of diverse backgrounds from within Spanish society.^[73]:12–15 Following a series of protests and social activism, a process of court battles took place over the continuing demolitions, centered on Article 47 of the Spanish Constitution which guarantees the right to housing.^[73]:14–15 In 2013, a landmark decision at the European High Court of Human Rights was delivered in favour of Cañada Real Galiana residents, effectively ending the demolitions and protecting the existence of the settlement under Spanish constitutional law.^[73]:15

Following the decision, as part of an effort to improve the situation in the settlement, the regional government of Madrid negotiated with municipalities neighbouring Cañada Real Galiana to conduct a formal census of the settlement.^[73]:16 Contrary to earlier mainstream media reports that the settlement was overwhelmingly Moroccan, sixty percent of residents were found to be non-Romani Spaniards, with the remainder being a diverse group consisting of other ethnicities; also, the population of the settlement was determined to be 8,600 residents instead of 40,000 as some sources had earlier claimed.^[73]:16 While environmental racism and environmental inequality continue to be major issues in the settlement for many residents in certain neighborhoods, the census revealed an arguably complex picture of the social situation in Cañada Real Galiana.^[73]:16

Nomad Camps and related sites

Romani camp, Naples, 2015, situated between highway structures.

In Rome, over 4,000 Romani persons (not to be confused with Romans) live in encampments authorized by the Italian national and Roman municipal governments.^[83]:5 As of 2013, 40,000 Romani persons were living in camps throughout Italy.^[83]:26 In response to the Italian government's alleged "Nomad Emergency" in 2008, in which a federal decree was passed stating that Romani communities were causing a "situation of grave social alarm, with possible repercussions for the local population in terms of public order and security",^[83]:8 an emergency "Nomad Plan" was devised by the municipal government of Rome.^[83]:8 The European Commission also granted legal passage for the Italian government to move forward with plans to systematically fingerprint Romani communities.^[47]:7

Under the "Nomad Emergency" decree, special funds were allocated by the government to close informal Romani settlements and encampments in Rome, and to resettle a maximum of 6,000 Romani persons into 13 authorized camps.^[83]:8 According to Amnesty International, "The decree was later declared unfounded and unlawful by the Council of State in November 2011 and by the Supreme Court in April 2013."^[83]:8 By 2013, living conditions in these camps had deteriorated severely due to overcrowding and a lack of utilities and other basic infrastructure.^[83]:9 As of 2010, six of the camps were located far from residential areas, situated outside Rome's Grande Raccordo Anulare, the city's orbital highway.^[83]:17 As of 2013, one camp, Castel Romano, was inaccessible by public transportation, and was located along a notably dangerous motorway, the Via Pontina.^[83]:17 Another camp, Nuovo Barbuta, was situated between a railroad, Rome's orbital highway, and the runway of Ciampino airport.^[83]:20 As of 2013, due to a lack of public transportation, residents of the Nuovo Barbuto camp had to walk long distances along an unpaved shoulder of a busy road in order to leave the camp; furthermore, they were subject to air and noise pollution from the nearby airport.^[83]:20

In 2015, 378 residents, most of whom were Romani, were documented residing at the Ex Cartiera housing shelter under extremely substandard, cramped, and unhygienic conditions.^[91]:7 Prior to its closure in 2016,^[91]:7 it was cited by the European Roma Rights Centre for being located in an isolated area of a heavy industrial district known as via Salaria 971,^[91]:7 located in immediate proximity to both a municipal solid waste treatment facility and a high-volume highway.^[91]:7

In Milan, the Social Emergency Shelter (SES) housed predominantly Romani residents in via Lombroso 99 district until 2016, located in an "old industrial area, alongside a busy railway track".^[91]:6 Families housed in the facility lived in shipping containers, with 16 to 27 persons residing in each container.^[91]:6 In 2010 another authorized settlement, Triboniano Camp, was "squeezed between a railway track, cemetery, and container storage" in an industrial area of Milan.^[3][92]

Hazardous waste in Campania and exposure to Romani settlements

Map of the Triangle of Death

In Italy, an estimated 11.6 million tons of waste are illegally disposed of each year.^[90] According to ex-Camorra member Carmine Schiavone, millions of tons of waste from factories in northern Italy have been illegally disposed of in the region north of Naples for decades, allegedly with Mafia and Camorra involvement and the complicity of government authorities and police.^[90] In 2004, the area surrounding Acerra was labeled by British medical journal The Lancet Oncology as a "triangle of death" where the incidence of two-headed sheep has been recorded.^[90]

According to Italian environmental organization Legambiente, in 2012 the total financial value of the illegal garbage industry in Italy was estimated at over 16 billion euros.^[90] Over the course of testimony delivered to a secret parliamentary investigative committee in Rome on October 7, 1997 (made public in 2013), Schiavone alleged that nuclear waste from East Germany was also secretly transported to the region, along with other wastes containing dioxin, asbestos, and tetrachloroethylene.^[90] Campania has since shifted from being a dumping destination and is now a transit point for the export of hazardous waste to China,^[89] and, according to Gen. Sergio Costa, commander of the Naples region for Italy’s environmental police, the Balkans and Eastern Europe.^[93]

Taverna del Re hazardous waste facility, Giugliano

As of 2014, 5,281 contaminated sites and suspected waste dumps have been located by American military investigators.^[90] Meanwhile, the region's 500,000 inhabitants have been disproportionately affected by medical ailments; according to Antonio Merfella of the Italian Cancer Research Institute in Naples, the region of Campania has the highest rate of infertility in Italy; in the province of Naples, lung cancer among non-smokers is increasing, while tumors in general have increased 47 percent among males.^[90] The region has also become known for disproportionate cases of autism.^[90] Concerns over the safety of food production in the fertile agricultural region (much of which is still believed to be uncontaminated) persist.^[90]

Many of the most seriously affected people in the region are Romani residents from settlements near Giugliano and the greater Naples area which have been subjected to extreme exposure of pollution and toxic waste.^{[3]:74–75[90][94][85][86]} According to Los Angeles Times journalist Tracy Wilkinson, Romani boys in 2008 were hired throughout the region by the Camorra to set fires to piles of waste, creating significant quantities of toxic smoke over vast swathes of land.^[89]

One of the contaminated Romani camps in Giugliano was unofficial, populated by 500 persons most of whom were migrants from the former Yugoslavia.^[3]:74–75 Built in 1991 and home to 85 families, it was documented in 2010 as a series of camps located "northwest of Naples, at the outer limits of the urban centre, on the external ring-road following the State Highway 162," surrounded by industrial lands.^[3]:74–75 Originally situated on open farmland, the so-called "spontaneous"-status unauthorized settlement became surrounded by industries and disposal sites that were later owned by the Government of Campania, which developed a 24-hour surveillance and barricade system surrounding the camp, contracted to the private security firm Falko Security S.R.I.S.^[3]:74–75 According to Raffaella Inglese in Mapping the Invisible, environmental justice concerns for residents in 2010 entailed

noise pollution produced by the neighbouring factories, air pollution from the same factories and [an] ex-centre for refuse collection; pollution from the burnt refuse; the danger of the roads being very near their homes and the areas in which their children play; the dirt and run-off from the illegal dumping of toxic industrial waste in the immediate vicinity and the necessity to wash themselves outside which is dangerous for children.^[3]:74–75

Fire burning near Giugliano, likely due to illegal waste incineration

Another environmentally toxic camp, Masseria del Pozzo, was also located in the Giugliano region.^[94][86] This camp, established in March 2013,^[94] was an official settlement forcibly created following the eviction of other camps in the Giugliano region,^[86] including a previous site that was contaminated by hazardous waste.^[85] The Masseria del Pozzo camp was home to approximately 260 persons in March 2016.^[86] In 2014, the population of the camp was estimated to be 500 persons,^[90] with approximately 200–400 children, according to various residents.^[85] According to the European Roma Rights Centre, the community had resided at various camps within the Naples region for the past 25 years and "almost all of the [former] inhabitants of the camp are residing lawfully in Italy; they generally have permanent resident status in Italy and some are Italian citizens".^[94]

The settlement was located next to the Masseria del Pozzo toxic waste dump where persistent issues of hazardous biogas leaks from the landfill caused severe health concerns, and was also surrounded by at least three other hazardous landfill sites such as Resit and Novambiente, as well as lands contaminated by illegal toxic sludge disposal.^[85] In the words of Der Spiegel journalist Walter Mayr, "500 Roma live in shacks and caravans at the foot of what is probably Europe's nastiest landfill, stuffed with, among other things, toxic sludge and dioxin. It is a place where, in the opinion of the responsible government commissioner, a 'sarcophagus like in Chernobyl' would be necessary to protect the public."^[90]

Residents of the former settlement reported mysterious deaths and disabilities among children and youths, as well as pneumonia and other sicknesses among children.^[85] According to former camp resident Giuliano Seferovic, authorities originally informed residents that they would only be placed at the location for a month; this promised timeframe extended to two months, and then nearly a year by the time of the interview.^[85] In a video interview with Mario De Biase, Government Commissioner for Reclaims (Land Reclamation), De Biase discusses the issue of toxic gases:

Surely these landfills are perhaps the most dangerous for their potential environmental disaster and effects not only on the environment but directly on human health ...

They are all gases coming from the landfill. They transmigrate through the permeability of the soil and arrive into this pit where they find their way to come out in the air. One cannot say that a child who lives 24 hours a day between the smoke of the mineralization of VOC [volatile organic compounds] of the well, who lives and plays on soils contaminated by hazardous waste, who crosses the road for 5 meters and ends up on a landfill where there are all the fumes of biogas and leachate, obviously I do not think that is good for the child, neither for adults.^[85]

In the words of former resident Rashid Osmanic, interviewed while living in the camp,

With biogas here we all die, no guns, no weapons, nothing! So we die. Two or three years here, and we all die, children get diseases.^[85]

Following the announcement of the planned closure of the settlement, Romani rights organizations such as Associazione 21 luglio and the European Roma Rights Centre condemned plans to forcibly relocate the community to a new segregated camp,^[94][86] with Associazione 21 luglio expressing particular concern over the potential creation of a larger segregated "mega-camp" where further social marginalization could take place.^[86] On June 21, 2016, the entire camp was forcibly evicted without written notice and relocated to a new camp in an industrial area near Giugliano.^[84] The new site is located at a former fireworks factory, which was destroyed in a 2015 explosion.^[84] According to human rights observers, the secluded site, which is surrounded by wild vegetation on three sides and a wall, is contaminated with what appears to be asbestos and unidentified potentially explosive substances, and is littered with sharp objects that pose a danger to children.^[84] Residents were not given any say in selecting a new site, and faced homelessness if they did not move to the new camp, which does not have any housing, sewerage, electricity, or adequate water supply.^[84] As of February 2016, the Ministry of Interior and Region Campania have secured funding for a new permanent, segregated replacement site with 44 prefabricated dwellings.^[84] No funding has been committed for integration measures such as education, health, employment, or community programs, prompting the European Roma Rights Centre to describe the plan as "a long term plan for segregation".^[84]

Migrant agricultural workers

In both Southern^[88]:11 and Northern^[95]:17 Italy, large numbers of migrant workers from Africa and Asia produce agricultural goods within a context of severe social and environmental marginalization, lacking access to clean water, utilities, housing,^[87] and wage security^[88]:26 while facing exposure to harsh working conditions and harmful pesticides.^[87] As of 2015, the Italian Association for Legal Studies on Immigration (ASGI) estimated that there were likely close to 500,000 regular and irregular foreign agricultural workers in Italy,^[96][95]:10 of whom 100,000 were believed to be at risk of severe marginalization with regards to living conditions and social mobility.^[96][95]:15

According to a report by Amnesty International, there is "a causal link between labour exploitation of migrant workers and the measures adopted by the Italian government with the stated view of controlling and regulating migration flows".^[88]:7 The report focused on the Latina and the Caserta areas^[88]:11 where large numbers of workers are of Indian (mostly Punjabi) and African origin respectively,^[88]:11 the latter of whom are mostly from Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia.^[88]:26 In Calabria, immigrant fruit pickers for the orange juice industry have been identified as subject to notably exploitative social conditions.^[87]

Migrant agricultural worker housing, Rosarno, Italy

While some migrant agricultural workers are paid well^[97] and welcomed as economic contributors for helping fill jobs that established Italians are often reluctant to perform,^[97] the average wage in Italy for migrant agricultural workers is only 33 dollars a day.^[97] In the Latina area alone, 61% of agricultural employers were found by Italian regulatory inspectors to be in contravention of social security and employment laws.^[88]:24 In Caserta, migrant agricultural workers partake in the tomato, fruit, dairy, watermelon, and orange industries, often under exploitative or substandard employment conditions.^[88]:26 In particular, the fast-growing and lucrative Italian tomato industry, which sources 60 percent of processed tomatoes consumed in the UK^[96] and half the entire European Union supply, producing a total export value of 1.5 billion Euros in 2014,^[95]:7 has been identified as a significant source of workplace abuse.^[96] While 70% of Italy's tomato production is generated from the areas of Puglia and Emilia Romagna,^[95]:11 severe abuses of tomato pickers have been documented throughout Italy, including most provinces.^[95]:16–17

On January 7, 2010, there was an outbreak of violence in the citrus-producing town of Rosarno, Calabria in the aftermath of a drive-by shooting that targeted two migrants.^[87][88]:21 Following the shooting, hundreds of migrants marched through the town to protest their living conditions, an event that ultimately led to confrontations with riot police and the torching of vehicles.^[88]:21 According to Amnesty International, "The clashes were followed by a "migrant manhunt" carried out by some local residents. In a number of separate incidents during the following days, two migrants were reportedly beaten with iron bars, five deliberately run over by a car and a further two injured by shot-gun pellets. In total, 53 persons were hospitalised, including 21 migrants, 14 local residents and 18 police officers."^[88]:21 Following the incident, a mass detention of migrants remaining in Rosarno ensued.^[88]:21 In the words of one worker from Ghana,

Citrus orchards near Rosarno, where anti-immigrant violence and clashes occurred January 2010

In Rosarno we were working from morning to night, picking oranges, for 25 euros a day; but we had to pay 5 euros for transport, so we had only 20 euros left. There were some abandoned factories where one would build a shelter with some cardboard – one was called the Ghana ghetto. That day [i.e. the day of the clashes, 7/8 January 2010] we decided to go and buy something in town. Some boys were shot by Italians. We decided to do a demonstration about that, because that was not the first time. That's where all the problems started. There were fights between blacks and whites. But we did not want to fight the Italians; we wanted to go to the Comune [the local administration]. No Italian would pick oranges for 25 euros.^[88]:22

A major issue for migrant workers in the Rosarno citrus industry are health concerns stemming from exposure to chemicals such as pesticides.^[87] According to healthcare worker Dr. Luca Corso of the outreach medical organization Emergency, which assists immigrants who are frequently denied access to Italian hospitals, many workers have shown signs of ailments caused by working in orchards where tree spraying is active.^[87] In the words of Dr. Corso,

We've started to see, particularly since the beginning of January, some cases that can be linked to working activities; mainly the improper use of pesticides and fungicides used during this season. It's mostly cases of irritative phenomenon, for example contact dermatitis in exposed areas (hands and face) or conjunctivitis...because the eyes are exposed.^[87]

According to Nino Quaranta, founder of agricultural rights advocacy group SosRosarno, an underlying issue for low wages is the economic challenge confronting many smaller-scale farmers.^[98] Most are small independent operators who are often unable to recover costs due to the current price of oranges, which has been affected by international competition and a price crash, thereby compelling them to seek the cheapest labor possible.^[87][98] Contributing to this pressure, market monopolization has been identified by local agriculture advocates as an aggravating factor.^[87] According to Pietro Molinaro of the Calabrian Organisation of Producers, "The problem this area has faced for some years is that the big multinational drinks companies underpay for the juice. They put pressure on the small local processing plants that press the juice."^[87]

Unauthorized waste incineration and recycling

In 2008, inhabitants of a Romani settlement in Athens reportedly burned rubber, tires, and other garbage in significant quantities, causing serious pollution in the settlement and exacerbating hostile relations with neighbouring communities,^[99]:32 including allegations of Romani slum dwellers discharging firearms at authorities attempting to extinguish the fires.^[102] Informal recycling industries partaken by Romani have been identified as a health concern.^[99]:40 In July 2008, unauthorized fires in Romani settlements, started for cleaning scrap metal by burning, were identified by authorities as being the source of major wildfires which caused significant economic damage as well as severe air quality issues for neighbouring Athens.^[102]

As of 2013, there was active waste scavenging by Romani persons at the Fyli landfill in Athens.^[103] In May 2013, following a previous action by police to guard the landfill from trespassers, an influx of unspecified numbers of Romani and immigrants led to the site being temporarily closed by Regional Governor Yiannis Sgouros.^[104] Sgouros stated that the closure, reportedly largely symbolic in nature, was in response to what had been described by news publication Ekathimerini as a "dangerous situation" at the landfill, requesting the government to halt "an unchecked influx of people".^[105] In the words of Sgouros, "The situation at the landfill is out of control. People, garbage trucks, bulldozers and trash are all in the same space with the constant risk of an accident."^[105] In April 2011, two persons of Pakistani ethnicity were murdered by Romani individuals armed with rifles at the Fyli dump.^[106] Three Pakistani individuals were also injured, and Romani dwellings were set on fire in retaliation for the killings.^[106] According to police, the incident was part of an ongoing conflict between Pakistani and Romani groups over access to recyclables at the landfill.^[106]

On the Greek island of Kalymnos, Romani persons scavenge waste and set fire to the local landfill to help clear debris, according to Kalymnos deputy mayor Mikes Rigas.^[107] In an interview at the landfill site, Rigas acknowledged the issue, stating

Look, we have a problem more generally with Roma individuals who come and gather materials from here and set fires, of course in the summer with the heat, fires start by themselves with the amount of material and plastic that there is. I don't want to say it is only them causing the problem, but they are part of it.^[107]

Smoke from the landfill, which has been likened to a "volcano", is a cause for health and quality of life concerns among locals, yet the fires have also been identified as a means by which excessive buildup of garbage has been averted.^[107] Both non-Romani and Romani workers on Kalymnos, especially younger persons, increasingly rely on waste scavenging and recycling as a means to survive.^[107] According to legally employed scrap recycler Giannis Velis, who is ethnic Romani, people from the local community, both Romani and non-Romani, set fire to the garbage in order to ensure the waste does not build up.^[107]

Spata Romani settlement

In 2000, a Romani settlement near Spata was temporarily relocated by local government authorities to a location situated on an isolated hilltop five kilometres from the town.^[99]:38 The site is only accessible by a rough track.^[99]:38 Shortages of water, no garbage collection services, poor water quality, inadequate sewerage, and outbreaks of hepatitis A have been reported at the settlement.^[99]:38 As of 2009, the settlement had not been relocated.^[99]:38 There have been unverified reports that the location is potentially contaminated with toxic waste, as it may have been the site of toxic waste dumping prior to settlement.^[99]:38

Alan Koyou Romani settlement

As of 2009, 1,700 people inhabited a Romani shantytown settlement in the Alan Koyou area of central Komotini.^[99]:38 The community, which was surrounded by piles of garbage, was only serviced with two water taps, and experienced a hepatitis A outbreak in 2007 which resulted in the hospitalization of 60 children.^[99]:38 Efforts to relocate the community to a site with healthier conditions in Kikidi have encountered opposition from residents there.^[99]:38

Aspropyrgos

Aspropyrgos, a municipality near Athens, is one of the largest industrial areas in Greece, containing hundreds of factories, warehouses, and other industrial facilities^[102] including an oil refinery which caught fire in 2015, severely injuring six workers.^[108] One environmentally problematic site was the Aspropyrgos Romani settlement, which was located on a garbage dump in an industrial sector of the community.^[100]:19 Between July 2000 and February 2001, homes of Greek and Albanian Romani were demolished to ostensibly make way for potential Olympic developments, even though the area had been turned down for development by the International Olympic Committee in 1999.^[100]:19 The destruction of the community was referred to by municipal authorities as a "cleaning operation".^[100]:19

On July 7, 2015, a major fire occurred at a private scrap metal warehouse nearby.^[109] Shortly after the blaze came under control by firefighters, groups of Romani persons entered the still-burning structure to scavenge for scrap metal.^[109] According to news reports, those entering the fire scene to collect scrap were "jeopardizing their lives" and in danger of sustaining burns and respiratory problems.^[109] Police had to be called to the scene to prevent Romani scrap collectors from entering the fire zone until firefighters could fully extinguish the blaze.^[109]

Nea Alikarnassos

In the municipality of Nea Alikarnassos, efforts to relocate a Romani settlement to make way for Olympic developments were halted by the Magistrate's Court of Heraklion, which ruled twice, in 2000 and 2001 respectively, that the relocation plans were "abusive", and that relocations could only take place under the condition that the new settlement location be provided with adequate housing and infrastructure to ensure a decent standard of living for its inhabitants.^[100]:20 As of 2009, the settlement continued to occupy the area it had been situated for twenty years, between an industrial area and a major roadway.^[100]:20 As of 2009, the settlement did not have electricity, sewerage, garbage collection, or clean water infrastructure.^[100]:20

Lechaina

In one instance, tree-planting has been documented as a proposed means to conceal the presence of Romani settlements during the lead-up to the Olympics.^{[100]:20–21} In Lechaina, Western Peloponnese, plans to relocate 35 Romani families next to the highway between Patras and Pyrgos (which is also the primary highway to Ancient Olympia) were abruptly placed on hold as a result of direct intervention from the Director of the Town Planning and Environment Directorate of the Western Greece Region.^{[100]:20–21} In the words of Alexandridis,

The Director informed Mr. [Dmitris] Hadjigiannis [the mayor of Lechaina] that because the suggested plot of land was within visual range of the national highway, the settlement's establishment should not go ahead as foreign visitors on their way to Olympia should not see the Gypsies living there. Mr. Hadjigiannis, thinking that this was a joke, called the Ministry of Interior, where the official with whom he spoke not only agreed with the rational [sic] of the Director of the Town Planning Directorate but also suggested that an alternative could be the appropriate landscaping of the settlement so that a small hill be created between the settlement and the national highway, upon which trees could be planted so that no visual contact between the settlement and drivers on the national highway could be established.^[100]:21

As of 2009, the resettlement had not taken place.^[100]:21

Migrant agricultural workers

Ethnic Pakistani and Bangladeshi agricultural workers in Greece have been subjected to well-documented cases of marginalization and violence within an environmental context, producing food and economic revenue for the Greek economy while themselves facing precarious living conditions and workplace environmental hazards, such as extremely harsh temperatures inside greenhouses.^[101] On the Peloponnese, thousands of undocumented ethnic Bangladeshi workers work harvesting potatoes and strawberries for extremely low-subsistence wages, often finding themselves working "under conditions akin to modern-day slavery", according to a report by Deutsche Welle.^[101]

In 2013, 28 workers on a strawberry farm in Nea Manolada (Manolada) were shot and wounded for demanding six months of unpaid wages.^[101][110] Approximately 200 workers were owed nearly 150,000 Euros, according to seasonal worker Liton Khan.^[101] In the words of Khan at the time, "We want our money, and we want justice. In the summer we slave away in greenhouses at temperatures up to sixty degrees Celsius."^[101]

Strawberry greenhouses in Ilia

In court, the owner of the farm, Nikos Vaggelatos, and the head foreman were acquitted, while two other men were convicted of aggravated assault.^[111] The two convicted were initially sentenced to fourteen years seven months, and eight years seven months, respectively, however they were later released on appeal.^[111] The ruling sparked widespread outrage among anti-racist and immigrant-rights supporters and activists; in the words of far-left Syriza Party MP Vassiliki Katrivanou, "[the ruling] sends the message that a foreign worker can die like a dog in the orchard".^[111]

In Nea Manolada, hundreds of South Asian workers have settled into informal agricultural settlements under severely substandard living conditions.^[101] Due to the Greek economic crisis, the migrants have arguably become increasingly important to the economy, performing vital agricultural jobs that are generally not performed by Greek citizens, many of whom face unemployment.^[101] Bangladeshi workers near Nea Manolada live in camps made of plastic and other scavenged materials, lacking water, sanitation, and adequate cooking facilities.^[101] In the words of a migrant worker and camp-dweller named Doulak, "We can't go back to Bangladesh, we don't have enough food or work there. Here at least we have enough to survive."^[101]

Ejaz Ahmed, a translator working with Doctors Without Borders (MSF), has stated that migrant agricultural workers in Nea Manolada are reportedly faced with many restrictions to freedom of movement, such as not being allowed to sit in the town square, being barred from cafes, not being permitted to go swimming at nearby beaches, and denied the option of renting houses.^[110] Ejaz further added that workers are reportedly forced to live inside "chicken coups, warehouses, and derelict buildings".^[110]

On July 1, 2014, the Pakistani Community of Greece, the Immigrant Workers League and the United Movement Against Racism and the Fascist Threat (KEERFA) held a press conference regarding alleged working conditions.^[110] Migrant agricultural workers publicly shared their experiences with workplace or work-related violence and the non-payment of wages.^[110]

In 2014, Nabil-Iosaf Morad, a medical doctor born in Syria, became the first immigrant to be elected mayor in Greece, for the district seat of Lechaina, municipality of Andravida-Kallyni.^[101][112] According to journalist Kostantinos Menzel, Morad's election was politically significant because the municipality of Andravida-Kallyni encompasses Nea Manolada, where the 2013 shooting of migrant workers took place.^[112] Morad has stated of undocumented immigrants in the district:

I will take care of these people. One of my first official acts will be to set up a counselling center in the town hall for migrants. I expect support from the Bangladeshi embassy. They can bring their complaints and problems to this office. We also want to offer language courses. Their living conditions have to improve.^[101]

As of 2016, Morad has been the current mayor of the municipality of Andravida-Kallyni.^[113]

Migrant agricultural workers of predominantly Pakistani origin held a nearly week-long strike beginning July 3, 2014, in Skala, Peloponnese.^[110] The 800 workers participating in the strike were protesting "many delays in payment, inhumane living conditions and racist treatment by the Greek Police" according to Kalmouki.^[110] Local media reported that the immigrants marched from Skala's city hall to the police station, where they met with police officials and indicated an intention to press charges in relation to allegations of police abuses.^[110] This was the second protest by Pakistani agricultural workers in the area, who also held a strike in September 2010.^[110]

In spite of local efforts to improve conditions for agricultural migrant workers and refugees, issues persist due to their undocumented status and lack of formal immigration paperwork, which can only be assigned by the Greek government.^[101] According to Doulak, migrants are subjected to regular police harassment due to a lack of documents granting legal status in Greece.^[101] According to Doulak, "The main problem is that we have no papers. We get picked up by the police all the time. And the farmers think that they don't have to pay us, because we're here illegally, we have to live with no electricity or running water."^[101]

Underlying causes in European Russia

Romani in Russia are frequently subject to geographic marginalization due to xenophobia. In 2005, Romani settlements in Arkhangelsk and Kaliningrad became the target of xenophobic political campaigns, in which local politicians used elections platforms that argued for "'cleaning' their city of 'gypsies' as one of their major promises to be fulfilled after winning the elections ... these politicians openly accused the entire Romani population of earning a living from the drug trade".^[151]:4 Romani were then accused of constructing illegal dwellings.^[151] In Kaliningrad, Romani houses were later violently evicted by force.^[151]:17 In Arkhangelsk, after obtaining legal permission to rent their parcels of land in Novy Posyolok, the Romani were then accused of not having permission to build houses; in 2006, the entire community was forced to leave the city "on a train provided for this purpose by the city administration, taking them to the Moscow region, into another illegal situation...but out of the city's political debates".^[151]:20

According to Paris-based Russian human rights organization Anti-Discrimination Centre (ADC) Memorial,^[151]:44 there is a "tendency that market considerations and contempt toward persons regarded as 'Gypsies' coalesce in the actions of municipalities carrying out urban renewal programs, in which the eviction of Roma from city centers—and public view—is an active component of public policy".^[151]:5

Inequality in access to energy resources

In Ivanovo Province, the Kolyanovo Romani settlement was located near the disused Ivanovo airport.^[151]:5 The residents had been evicted from Ivanovo city 15 years earlier.^[151]:5 Following plans to expand the airport, the community became threatened with eviction once again.^[151]:5

Often Romani settlements are denied access to utilities such as natural gas,^[151]:5 despite the abundance of natural gas in Russia.^[130]:29 For example, in Ryazan Province, the village of Dyaguilevo, with a population of 600 persons, has been established since 1988 in "extreme poverty" and, as of 2008, has faced significant issues with obtaining reliable natural gas and electricity service.^[151]:5

An arguably more extreme case of inequality over access to energy resources can be found in the Roma village of Plekhanovo, located five kilometres outside Tula.^[151]:6 As of 2008, the village was inhabited by 3000 individuals, most of whom had been settled there since the 1960s.^[151]:6 In March 2016, a violent confrontation took place between residents (including children) and as many as 500 riot police over access to a natural gas pipeline that runs through the village.^[152] In spite of the line running through the village, the Romani inhabitants, whose houses were at risk of demolition, had been unable to secure legal access rights to the gas, and had resorted to illegally tapping into the pipeline for domestic use.^[152] According to community representative Nadezhda Demetr, "Instead of helping people register their houses and legalise their gas supplies, the authorities have been demolishing their houses. Since 2005, houses have been demolished without compensation because they don't have any documents."^[152] Another local Romani community leader, Ivan Grigoryevich, stated to media that "We have been living in this settlement since the 1960s and we have tried many, many times to get gas into our houses, but we are prohibited by town officials."^[152]

Disputed environmental reasons for evicting Romani settlements

In another conflict related to land and natural resource issues, the village of Kosaya Gora (3 kilometres outside Tula) was, as of 2008, threatened with eviction.^[151]:5 The village of 400 individuals had been located at its current site since the 1960s, yet the land on which the Romani resided was declared by a court to be located on a "protected nature reserve area", according to Romani rights activists.^[151]:5

In a similar case to Kosaya Gora, residents of a Romani settlement in Chudovo were faced with eviction in 2007.^[151]:24 The residents, who had resettled to the area with verbal consent from local authorities after being evacuated from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, had been living in the area since the mid-1990s, later to learn that their houses were declared as falling within a "sanitary protection zone" around an unused asphalt plant, and that their homes would be subject to demolition.^[151] Without access to documents to demonstrate title to the land, the community could not effectively argue in protection of their claimed property rights.^[151]

Migrant workers from Hungary and Central Asia

Migrant workers in Russia frequently experience issues of environmental marginalization as a result of social and economic pressure to live in high-risk, substandard accommodations. According to Anti-Discrimination Centre (ADC) Memorial,

Migrant workers, especially families with children, often cannot find accommodation, due to high prices and the unwillingness of landlords to rent their property to migrants, particularly to those who do not have the appropriate documentation. As a result, migrant families are forced to live in places not designed for living, especially for living with children. Companies, who are happy to employ cheap migrant labor, and to save on their accommodation, are often facilitating this process.^[153]:34

As of 2013, in the Nevsky district of St. Petersburg migrant workers and their families have been documented living in unsafe housing conditions that lacked utilities such as safe drinking water and electricity.^[153]:34 Many of the workers were from the former Soviet Republics of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.^[153]:34 As of 2013, there was also a shantytown on the outskirts of St. Petersburg, segregated in a remote, difficult to access industrial area, whose residents were Uzbek citizens from Khorezm city.^[153]:35–6 In addition to concerns over health and safety similar to those faced by migrant workers in Nevsky district, this settlement had no waste collection service, and contained large garbage pits.^[153]:37

Other areas of environmental concern have been the settlements of "Roma-Mugat" migrants from Tajikistan, such as the settlement at Volodarka village, St. Petersburg.^[153]:36 As of 2013, according to ADC Memorial,

The living conditions of Mugat-migrants do not correspond to elementary sanitary norms and requirements for security and hygiene. In Mugat settlements, which usually have several hundred inhabitants, there is no water supply, heating or electricity. Improvised settlements are spread on the boundaries of big towns, near household waste dumps, forest strips, [and] industrial areas ... where there is practically no infrastructure water supply, electricity and sewage system [sic].^[153]:36

Many of these "Central Asian Roma-migrants" have extremely poor diets, which are often supplemented by scavenged food from dumps.^[153]:36 This has caused epidemic proportions of "tuberculosis, hepatitis, intestinal disorders, and helminthiasis".^[153]:36

Romani migrants from Hungary often face visible issues of environmental marginalization in Russia.^[153]:36–7 As of 2013, according to ADC Memorial, "One of the largest Roma-Magyar settlements is situated in the industrial area on the outskirts of Saint-Petersburg. It borders the Saint-Petersburg-Moscow railway line and the household waste dump."^[153]:36 Within the camp, the houses were made of scavenged materials, and basic services and utilities such as water, sewerage, and garbage collection were nonexistent; for bathing, many residents used water from a nearby marsh.^[153]:36–7 Due to substandard housing and the lack of water distribution, all residents lived in constant risk of fire hazards.^[153]