Representatives of the Czech town of Vsetín have decided not to approve the conclusion of an out-of-court settlement with the former Romani tenants of a building that used to stand in the town center, but want the matter to be decided by a court. Vsetín evicted the Romani tenants from the centrally-located, dilapidated building in the year 2006.
The courts have been dealing with the case since 2008. An out-of-court settlement was recently rejected by the local council.
In 2006 the town hall bought old houses in the Jeseníky district and coerced some of the evicted Romani families into assuming 20-year loans from the town in order to purchase them. Another 40 Romani families were relocated to the periphery and housed in apartment units made from metal shipping containers.
The evicted families who were relocated to the Jeseníky and Prostějov districts were coerced into buying half-collapsed houses in remote villages. Three families were relocated into such old houses in the villages of Stará Červená Voda, Vidnava and Vlčice.
