The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC)’s Census of Forced Evictions of Roma in Italy: 2021 – 2025 demonstrates that regular evictions of Romani families by local authorities have become a matter of routine in Italy, with more than 129 evictions carried out over the four year period. While the census counts at least 696 people, comprising 67 families who were in most cases made homeless or placed in unstable housing conditions, the gaps in the data and spread of anti-Roma hate speech point to a wider problem in the normalisation of forced evictions of Roma in Italy which has rendered the scandal largely invisible in national reporting.
“More than ten years after the government first pledged to ‘overcome the system of the camps’, Italy still segregates Roma, and still forcibly evicts scores of vulnerable families in clear violation of international standards. This needs to stop. More than 15,000 Roma are still living in precarious conditions in segregated camps and shelters. Rather than large scale camp closures, these days many families are subject to repeat evictions from their living places. The authorities must finally resolve this issue in a sustainable, humane, and rights-compliant fashion” said the ERRC’s President Đorđe Jovanović.
The census is a non-exhaustive list of evictions of formal and informal camps, compiled from media, activists, and NGO reports over the past four years. The data shows a marked decrease in the number of Roma living in mono-ethnic official and unofficial camps as well as a welcome decrease in the number of Roma forcibly evicted during the monitoring period. The previous census of forced evictions, covering the period 2017 – 2021, found a total of 187 evictions affecting 3156 people (accessible here).
However, caution is warranted in celebrating this reduction in recorded evictions. Compared to previous ERRC censuses, a large part of the data-set for 2021-2025 is incomplete in terms of recording actual numbers of people affected by each eviction. This is largely due to a lack of reporting on the part of news media. Additionally, as this latest census confirms, forced evictions persist, while thousands of Roma still live in squalid conditions. In 2023, there were still at least 119 segregated camps and shelters (housing approximately 13,300 people) operated by local authorities in Italy, according to estimates by Associazione 21 Luglio. A further 2,500 Roma are estimated to live in ‘informal camps’, many because of previous evictions of local-authority-run ‘nomad camps.’
In 2024, the Council of Europe’s European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR) found that Italy’s persistent discriminatory mistreatment of Roma in its housing policies amounts to serious violations of the European Social Charter. On the issue of forced evictions, the Committee found that: “The State has failed to adopt a comprehensive and adequate legal framework allowing to ensure sufficient remedies in cases of forced evictions. Moreover, as a result of these practices, Roma and Sinti are largely stigmatised and remain marginalised, which constitutes discriminatory treatment.”
Forced evictions and demolition of dwellings occur against a background of deeply embedded and long-established routines of anti-Roma racism. The ERRC has documented and litigated these human rights abuses against Roma in Italy for over two decades; and its monitoring shows that anti-Romani statements by public figures became increasingly common over the past decade, including public insults, defamation and dissemination of racist and white supremacist ideologies. This latest ERRC census confirms ECRI’s observation in 2024 that the housing situation for Roma remains ‘a matter of concern’: “Many Roma still reside in formal and unformal settlements, which often lack basic amenities and are located in city outskirts with limited access to public transportation. Moreover, forced evictions of Roma in violation of international standards have continued.”
The Census of Forced Evictions of Roma in Italy 2021-2025 is available here.
This press release is also available in Italian.
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