Hundreds of thousands of Roma live in dilapidated homes in central and southeastern Europe - a catastrophic coronation disaster. But instead of helping the endangered, governments often send police or the military.
Rarely does anyone speak of a large and particularly risky group in Europe: millions of poor Roma. For many, especially in Central and Southeast Europe, there may soon be a health and humanitarian catastrophe.
Most of them live in desperate conditions and mostly without the possibility of maintaining hygiene. In addition, many informally engaged as those who collect plastic and metal waste or trade on the street with food, household items or flowers, now have no job.
There are about 12 million Roma in Europe - they are the largest minority on the continent. Almost half of all European Roma live in seven central and southeastern European countries: the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia and Macedonia.
There are also some of the most notorious miserable settlements such as Lunik IX on the outskirts of the East Slavic town of Kosice, Stolpinovo in the Bulgarian town of Plovdiv, Ferentari in the Romanian capital Bucharest or Suto Orizari in Skopje.
Common to these and similar settlements is that the people there live in a large number of narrow spaces. Often families of three to four generations live together in one or two rooms.
The new right-wing nationalist government in Slovakia, meanwhile, acknowledged the problem - but continued with a dubious approach. Prime Minister Igor Matovich said there was a mass testing of Roma for coronavirus this week. It is initially implemented in 33 settlements. Above all, people who have recently returned from abroad have been tested, and the tests are performed by military doctors accompanied by soldiers. Depending on the test results, some people are sent to state quarantines or entire settlements will be quarantined.
