Chomutov benefit seizures provokes new row over Romany integration
The city of Chomutov in North Bohemia is under fire over a controversial
new method of reclaiming debts owed by low-income families – sending
bailiffs to recover the money as soon as they receive it as social
benefits. Most of the families are from the Romany or gypsy minority, and
the method has ignited a new row over the integration of the Roma into
Czech society.
Chomutov, like many other towns and cities in North Bohemia, has long
struggled to reclaim debts owed by low-income families, most of them
members of the Romany minority, who have no jobs, little education and rely
on social benefits to survive. They live in crumbling apartment blocks and
some owe the city thousands of crowns in unpaid rent and unpaid fines for
public order offences.
Last week the city tried a new way of getting them to pay up – they sent
bailiffs to the local social security office to seize the debts as soon as
they withdrew their benefits. The method was criticised by human rights
groups as well as the Ombudsman’s office in Brno. The mayor of Chomutov,
Ivana Řápková, gave this withering response to the deputy Ombudsman
during a debate on Czech Television:
“The deputy Ombudsman is speaking from her nice warm office in Brno. I
recommend that she try swapping her flat with one of my constituents here
in Chomutov, where she’ll be living next door to socially unadaptable
people who’ll be making noise all night when she has to get up at six am
to go to work. She’ll be living in a town where she parks her car at
night and in the morning it doesn’t have any wing mirrors. A town where
she has to walk through puddles of urine because socially unadaptable
people can’t be bothered to use a toilet. I don’t know who the deputy
Ombudsman represents, but I’m here for decent people, and I represent
their interests.”
Mrs Řápková says her office has now suspended the seizure of benefits,
although she warns they may resume in March. Meanwhile the newly-appointed
minister for human rights, Michael Kocáb, has also been drawn into the
dispute. On Monday Mr Kocáb sent his spokeswoman to Chomutov to meet the
mayor. She was sent back to Prague with an invitation for the minister to
spend a few nights in one of the apartment blocks to see the situation at
first hand. Initially he declined, something that was immediately seized
upon by the Czech media, which, he told Radio Prague, were partly
responsible for distorting the whole situation.
“It’s a storm in a teacup. Now I’m being bombarded with questions
– will I take up their offer of staying in Chomutov for a few days to see
what it’s like. First of all I said I don’t have time. They said
that’s no answer. So I said, OK, I’ll go, but I have to clear it with
the government first, because we’re all working 14, 16, 18 hour days at
the moment with the EU presidency. I have to figure out what kind of agenda
I’d be taking to Chomutov, it’s just not that simple. Me – Michael
Kocáb – I’m really interested in it, I’d go there today if it was up
to me. So I’ve told them we’ll choose a date and I’ll go up there and
I’ve got no problem meeting the mayor and talking to her. But to be
honest with you I don’t think it’ll help because the way I see it
she’s breaking the law deliberately, and that’s something else.”
Mayor Řápková says she’s received letters of support from all over
the Czech Republic, and that many of the rent-defaulters have been
frightened into paying their debts. Opponents insist seizing people’s
social benefits is illegal. The pressure is now on Mr Kocáb, who must
mediate in a divisive, highly complex issue with strong racial overtones
and no obvious solutions.
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Chomutov, like many other towns and cities in North Bohemia, has long
struggled to reclaim debts owed by low-income families, most of them
members of the Romany minority, who have no jobs, little education and rely
on social benefits to survive. They live in crumbling apartment blocks and
some owe the city thousands of crowns in unpaid rent and unpaid fines for
public order offences.
Mrs Řápková says her office has now suspended the seizure of benefits,
although she warns they may resume in March. Meanwhile the newly-appointed
minister for human rights, Michael Kocáb, has also been drawn into the
dispute. On Monday Mr Kocáb sent his spokeswoman to Chomutov to meet the
mayor. She was sent back to Prague with an invitation for the minister to
spend a few nights in one of the apartment blocks to see the situation at
first hand. Initially he declined, something that was immediately seized
upon by the Czech media, which, he told Radio Prague, were partly
responsible for distorting the whole situation.
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