The streets where she lived are cluttered with rubbish, scrap metal and clothes hung out to dry. Rows of single-storey prefabricated houses sit on the Greek plain, with hills in the distance. Greece's Roma community has for centuries been underprivileged and exposed to poverty and discrimination. According to the London-based Minority Rights Group, some 80 per cent of the country's 300,000 Roma are illiterate. Some resort to criminal activity, engendering resentment from the larger Greek community.