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Abdullah Cıstır: Roma Families Are In A Difficult Situation 06/06/2011

President of İzmir Roma Social Cooperation and Solidarity Association Abdullah Cıstır made a press statement about problems of the Roma families who go to Çeşme district of İzmir from Konak district of İzmir to work as seasonal workers. Abdullah Cıstır asks authorities to find a solution for the families whose tents were demolished by Ceşme municipality.

Here is the full text of the statement:

To the public attention!

30-40 families migrate from Konak district of İzmir to Çeşme district of İzmir to work as seasonal workers each year. These families called me at June 1th to tell about declaration of municipality police officer. We, as the association, wrote petitions to the mayor and district governor. We ask them to offer us any place for the families to settle if they think that Roma families are irritating for tourist in visual context. We ask them to prepare portable toilets-baths for the families. Although we hoped them to help the families, municipality police officers demolished their tents.

We demand these families to be allowed to settle in Çeşme temporarily for their job. We demand better life conditions for them. We don't want to share deportation process of the families with media. But if our people will go hungry, we will... We want to be respected not to be deported.

We want publicity to be more sensible about the situation.

Abdullah Cıstır