A month after the collapse of their homes near the Dajlan Bridge drainage canal, Roma families are returning to their homes in shacks in the ruins of their homes, as they found no place to lay their heads.
Amid the piles of rubble and mud near the Dajlan Bridge in Durrës, three plastic-covered shacks appeared like mushrooms one after the other. Stranded between four roads, the residents returned there just a month after the Territory Protection Inspectorate demolished their homes.
“They only kept us for seven days at the Convalescent Hospital where the municipality took us and then they kicked us out. We had nowhere to go,” says Erma Zerellari, a father of five. “We had no place to lay our heads.”
The roof over the makeshift shack is held up by boards and sheet metal, while the small space is filled with the few belongings that the Zerellari family managed to save from the collapse.
Similar to them, Xhina Hysenaj was forced to return to the barracks.
"We have no other option. We returned here because we had nowhere else to go," she said desperately.
Following massive flooding in early January, the Municipality of Durres ordered the demolition of 16 homes along the drainage canal at Dajlan Bridge, inhabited mainly by Roma families, on January 26. According to the Municipality of Durres, the constructions near Dajlan Bridge were obstructing the flow of water and posing a risk of repeated flooding, while residents protested after the action was carried out without first being guaranteed a housing solution.
Within a month, three families returned there in much worse conditions, as they found no other alternative. But the housing crisis affects all residents of the area, who have been temporarily dispersed to relatives and friends, living in uncertainty about the future.
Settled in this area for about 30 years, the families had built their homes near the drainage canal, while some of them had started the legalization process as early as 2015. The area today has no electricity or water supply. The residents survive by collecting cans and scrap metal for recycling.
The demolitions of Roma families' homes were denounced by the organization "Social Justice", which is preparing a lawsuit against the Inspectorate of Territorial Protection and the Municipality of Durres.
"In the Dajlan Bridge area, several apartments have been illegally demolished, although they had been in the legalization process for years. The residents were forcibly evicted and left in the middle of four streets by the Durrës Municipality, in direct violation of the law on social housing," the organization stated.
"With the residents, until justice is served," the response concludes.
The Municipality of Durrës claims that the action was carried out to free the irrigation and drainage infrastructure from unauthorized constructions, which hindered the functioning of the canal and increased the risk of flooding. According to the Municipality, families will be treated with rental bonuses within the framework of social housing programs until the allocation of social housing according to the points system.
On the ground, many families say they still don't have a concrete solution.
“They told us to wait, but we had nowhere to wait,” Zerellari told BIRN.
Some families are already living in the homes of relatives, others are still looking for a solution, while the three families who had no one to go to have returned to the ruins of their homes. The neighborhood has been left out of any urban project for years, where road infrastructure is problematic along its entire length.
In the evening, while the surrounding buildings are illuminated by lights, the shanties by the canal remain in darkness. /BIRN/
