Roma and Travelers in Netherlands fear for their culture

The Dutch interior ministry set out to protect the rights of Europe's minority group a year ago — but little has changed.

Dutch authorities decided to break up the larger settlements — which often included schools and buildings for social events — and only allow small ones | Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

ZWOLLE, the Netherlands – For Roma and Traveler communities in the Netherlands, things were meant to get better.

Across the Continent, Europe’s largest minority group faces restrictions on their way of life, in particular their tradition of living in caravans. In July last year, the Dutch interior ministry set out to protect their rights by asking local authorities to halt the practice of limiting parking sites for their caravans.

One year on, however, little has changed: Most Dutch municipalities remain reluctant to accommodate their housing needs, leaving Roma and Traveler communities in fear for the survival of their traditions.

“We are fighting to preserve our Traveler culture,” reads a banner in front of seven semi-permanent caravans parked on a desolate lot on the edge of Zwolle, a town in the northeast of the Netherlands.

Andries Schäfer, 43, has lived here with his family since last October. Despite the new policy, he has so far been denied a more permanent pitch for his home. Like many Travelers across the Netherlands, he has been engaged in a yearlong protest against the sluggish implementation of the policy.

In the Netherlands, many municipalities have pursued a so-called extinction policy for caravan parks since 1999.

Before, Schäfer — a truck driver who is temporarily unemployed — was living on a campsite for tourists, but regulations prohibit permanent settlement on such sites in Zwolle. He tried living in regular housing for a while, but could not get used to it. “I feel extremely locked up and unhappy in an apartment,” he said.

Tired of moving from place to place and encouraged by the interior ministry’s new policy, Schäfer moved back into a semi-permanent caravan — which includes a shower, a bedroom and a living room — on the Zwolle outskirts. A tape marks the borders of their pitch.

“This is where I feel at ease,” Schäfer said. “It is the freedom of not being locked into stone walls that I need.”

The Zwolle municipality provided them with access to running water, electricity and two portable toilets. “This was back in October and it has cost Zwolle around €40,000,” he said. “It gave us high hopes of actually getting a permanent spot, so we are puzzled as to why this just is not happening.”

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In July 2018, Dutch Interior Minister Kajsa Ollongren asked municipalities to change their housing regulations, stating that Travelers and Roma ought to be able to live their life according to their traditions. She referred to court verdicts ruling that the current housing policy is discriminatory.

Of Europe’s estimated 10 to 12 million Roma people — including groups such as the Sinti — and Travelers, some 36,000 live in the Netherlands. Itinerant in the past, most of them no longer travel, or do so only rarely, but prefer to live in caravans alongside their extended families rather than in standard housing.

Their lifestyle has long been under threat, as Nils Muižnieks, then human rights commissioner of the Council of Europe, wrote in a 2016 report: “This way of life is seriously hampered and endangered by the lack of halting sites, increasingly frequent evictions, hostility and rejection of the majority population and widespread discrimination. This has been so for decades. ”

In the Netherlands, many municipalities have pursued a so-called extinction policy for caravan parks since 1999. Whenever a resident died, the municipality would take that pitch away by putting concrete blocks on the ground, forcing more Roma and Travelers to move into regular housing.

That happened to Schäfer, who grew up in a large caravan park in Zwolle called “de Hanenrick,” located just a stone’s throw away from where he is demonstrating right now. Back then, it was a communal home to some 150 people.

As in many Dutch caravan parks, which tend to lie on the margins of cities, criminal activity — such as tapping electricity and growing weed — were common, Schäfer recounted. Frequent fights and drug-related issues created an atmosphere of lawlessness; policemen would often avoid entering the site, Schäfer said, “as often they would be beaten up by the inhabitants.”

As a result, the authorities decided to break up the larger settlements — which often included schools and buildings for social events — and only allow small ones.

Ollongren’s new framework was meant to put an end to such strategies. Yet there are no consequences for municipalities that fail to comply, as Ollongren’s policy is a recommendation, not a law.

“In every single country in the EU, the housing rights situation for these groups is worrying” — Isabela Mihalache, European Network Against Racism

Although many cities and villages in the Netherlands have started to assess the housing needs of Travelers and Roma, few have made real progress. A handful of municipalities even wrote to the minister to express their concerns, saying they feared a rise in crime rates. (Ollongren responded that crime was a separate issue subject to the penal code, though she was open to looking into their concerns.)

Reinier Mulder, a member of the Zwolle city council for the Christian Union (CU) party, said big caravan parks had prompted concerns over criminality and other “nuisances” in the past.

“So we do not want to go back to those huge caravan parks,” he said. But he added that the municipality wanted to find an appropriate spot for Schäfer and his family.

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Elsewhere in Europe, the situation for Roma and Traveler communities is not much better, according to Isabela Mihalache from the advocacy group European Network Against Racism.

“In every single country in the EU, the housing rights situation for these groups is worrying,” she said.

Roma are confronted with particular difficulties in France and Italy — which evict thousands of Roma from their homes every year — and Travelers who remain itinerant face even greater obstacles to upholding their way of life, she added.

“Roma people do not want to travel around. Travelers essentially do, but in many countries, like Ireland, it is very restricted and problematic to do this, or even forbidden, like in the Netherlands,” said Mihalache, who is Roma herself.

She noted that when Roma and Travelers are allocated appropriate housing, this is often in remote areas far from inner cities and infrastructure — a factor contributing to their marginalization.

As the first anniversary of Ollongren’s policy announcement draws closer, Roma and Traveler communities in the Netherlands continue to wait for change.

Ollongren is holding out hope that her framework will be implemented. “New policy takes time,” she said in a letter to mayors in December.

Piet van Assendorp, chairman of a Dutch Traveler association, echoed her words and said he is “cautiously optimistic.”

“Some villages and cities have already started to make promises, for instance in Leudal, where Sinti are promised new permanent places,” van Assendorp said. “It needs time to make the shift from an extinction policy to an expansion.”

Paula Bloemers from the association Travelers United The Netherlands agreed, but said: “I wish the minister would add more pressure.”

In the meantime, the Schäfers and other Traveler families are living in limbo. They had been asked to leave the parking lot by July 1 but Schäfer said they would appeal against the order, adding: “We have a right to demonstrate and we have the right to live in a way that respects our culture.”

His wife Jacqueline said she felt “terrible” that there had been no change in their situation despite the new policy. “This has been going on for so long now. They keep on giving false promises,” she said.

For many in the Traveler community, their wait has lasted far longer than one year, she added: “Many Travelers have been waiting for years to live in a way that is compatible with our culture.”

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