Demolition of illegal Roma settlement underway in Sofia

In Sofia's Zaharna Fabrika neighbourhood, in the Ilinden municipality, the authorities have begun demolishing illegal structures inhabited by members of the Roma community.

The municipality assures full cooperation with the citizens. The demolition began in the morning with an increased police presence and the use of water cannons. The residents of the buildings are worried that they will be left on the streets just before the Easter holidays. Yesterday the water supply to the houses to be demolished was cut off. 

Four families from the illegal buildings have already been accommodated in another neighbourhood of the capital - Botunets, according to the Ilinden municipality. 

However, Lilia Donkova, the mayor of Kremikovtzi municipality, where Botunets is located, announced in a letter to the media that she "categorically disagrees with the accommodation of Roma from the demolished buildings" in Botunets. "Neither I nor the residents of Botunets and the surrounding area will allow this," Donkova wrote. "I am against their accommodation with us, because we have enough Roma who are part of our population. They know each other and if more Roma come to them, more than one family, it will immediately spark a war between locals and outsiders," Donkova told BTA.