Pata-Rât

Pata Rat is a waste dump, home to four distinct communities of Roma people. Over 35,000 cubic meters of waste are deposited every day and the community collects PET bottles, metals, wood, plastic sheets and everything that can be reused, repaired or recycled.

"Some say" you will go where you belong ", this is how we felt when they transferred us to the dump, and this is how the Romanians look at us like garbage. What is missing in Pata Rat is only the famous inscription "Arbei macht frei", says Pepe, one of the evicted. In 2010, in the middle of a harsh winter with temperatures reaching -20 C, with a day's notice, seventy-six families (about 350 people), most of them Roma, were forcibly evicted from the center of Cluj - Napoca , Transylvania, the "Silicon Valley" of Eastern Europe. Most of them were moved to the outskirts of the city, in the industrial area of ​​Pata Rât. Pata Rat is a waste dump, home to four distinct communities of Roma people. Over 35,000 cubic meters of waste are deposited every day and the community collects PET bottles, metals, wood, plastic sheets and everything that can be reused, repaired or recycled. The community, including children, worked informally on the landfill, but earlier this year the municipality closed access to the landfill and many families lost their entrances. Many have found work in the waste cycle as street sweepers. Romania has a large Roma community that is extremely discriminated against. An estimated 500,000 Roma in Romania are illiterate, and the number of Romanians living in poverty is three times that of any other ethnic group. Roma children are often discriminated against in school and their existence is not recognized by the government. Romania is facing a serious lack of social housing: the gentrification of the suburbs and the reclaiming of private property seized during the years of communism are marginalizing low-income tenants. "Thousands of people are evacuated every year and there will be others. Accessible housing must become a political priority, otherwise what we see today is only the beginning of Romania's "favelisation" ", says Adrian Dohotaru, a rights activist who has become a parliamentarian.