Britons living in Bulgaria. Guide to Bulgaria, Sofia and Varna

Where will the nomads go - Peninsula On-line

Where will the nomads go Peninsula On-line, Qatar - Mar 13, 2008 Countries such as Bulgaria, France, Greece and Romania will be happy to take their cue from a country like Britain that prides itself on its human rights ...

Where will the nomads go - Peninsula On-line
All the families have registered with local doctors, and when health officials have been able to provide preventive care, they�ve achieved results. Almost none of the older Travellers can read or write, and they don�t want their children to suffer the same fate. And the stakes in their case are enormous � not only for the Travellers, but also for Britain.First and foremost, theirs will be a massive eviction. And there�s undeniably much ill will toward the Travellers, who are blamed for forcing down land prices, dumping garbage on public property and driving too fast along country lanes. Attendance has now risen to 80, thanks to some persistent outreach by dedicated teachers, but many Traveller children still perform poorly, not least because their parents pull them out of school frequently and without warning. But many local families pulled their children out of the nearby primary school when the Travellers started attending, and the school population fell from more than 200 to just 40. Dale Farm lies deep in the English countryside, about 50 miles east of London. Hundreds will be affected, including a 72-year-old cancer patient, a young woman pregnant with twins, children with severe disabilities, elderly widows and many families with no means of transport. I recently spent a few chilly days at the farm, meeting with young mothers, widows, old men with asthma and high blood pressure, and high-spirited youngsters who should have been in school. If it goes against them, their homes can be reduced to rubble.These 86 families are one of the country�s largest concentrations of Travellers, a nomadic group of Irish origin that began migrating to Britain in the 1960s. In other words, there will be no more roaming around the British countryside, and the Travellers will have to find their own land.At this, Traveller families began to purchase land at Dale Farm. Last month, their appeal reached the High Court in London, which is expected to rule after Easter. Municipal workers come to collect garbage and occasionally clear out rats, but the council has withheld most other services, which the Travellers installed themselves. Once on the road, the Travellers will be barred from receiving regular medical treatment, because Britons need a fixed address to register with a doctor. One anti-smoking clinic got 200 Travellers to quit in six months.This modest progress will be brutally interrupted by eviction. One government health official told me that such populations typically don�t receive the medical screening that picks up risk factors that lead to killers such as heart disease. One local official described relations between the Travellers and locals as �pure poison.�Still, for all the uncertainty, Dale Farm has brought some stability to the Travellers and has shown how they might be brought into the mainstream of society. Several years ago, they built houses here without permission from the local government, or council, which ordered them to vacate the premises in June 2005. The 86 families moved in anyway and built without permission.Their status, however, makes any sort of integration more difficult. The Basildon council, which was controlled at the time by the Labor Party, gave them planning permission even though the farm was classified as �green belt� and zoned against development. The children�s education will come to a grinding halt. They can�t be deported, because most are British citizens. Water and sanitation can be much improved.Education is another challenge. When I worked with the United Nations in Cambodia, we used to describe people like this as �EVIs� � extremely vulnerable individuals.