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Is there evidence of denial of housing/housing rights for certain ethnic groups?

Code:
RED69
Key Area:
Housing & Segregation
Strand(s):
Racism, Discrimination
28/12/2011 - 15:48
Short Answer

Only citizens of Slovenia have access to non-profit rented housing which disproportionately affects minority ethnic groups. There are numerous documented cases of Roma who were prevented from buying or renting real estate property.   

Qualitative Info

According to the Housing Act, only Slovenian citizens, migrants under the principle of reciprocity and EU nationals with permanent residence in Slovenia have the right to apply for non-profit housing. Consequently, third country nationals are excluded from non-profit schemes. The condition is therefore nationality and ethnic group, meaning that there is no direct discrimination on the grounds of ethnicity. The situation is different with regard to indirect discrimination, as such rules disproportionately affect people of non-majoritarian ethnic origin.

 

According to Amnesty International, there are numerous documented cases when Roma families tried to purchase or rent property in order to secure their housing rights, but their attempts were blocked either by local communities or by individuals leaving these communities. Further, in most municipalities Roma families face barriers in accessing non-profit housing, which include lack of information, biased attitudes and discriminatory criteria for allocation. Further, since most Roma settlements have no security of tenure, they often face forced evictions. Several cases are documented. However, there is a lack of any comprehensive data on the number of forced evictions.  

 

Source:

Housing Act (Stanovanjski zakon, SZ-1), Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, no. 69/2003.

Parallel lives. Roma denied rights to housing and Water in Slovenia, report, Amnesty International, 2011, available at http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/EUR68/005/2011.

Data
Groups affected/interested Roma & Travelers, Ethnic minorities
Type (R/D) Anti-migrant/xenophobia, Anti-roma/zinghanophobia, Nationalism
Key socio-economic / Institutional Areas Housing
External Url http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/EUR68/005/2011
Situation(s)
Library