In the run-up to the election The Sun newspaper produced a special supplement called ‘Stamp on the camps’; the Conservative Party claimed Gypsy communities were flouting British law and called for more evictions; in some areas, the BNP campaigned on an anti-Gypsy platform; a campaign and website called Middle England in Revolt sprang up, claiming it aims to protect rural communities from illegal Traveller camps. The Labour government continues to make Travellers homeless by evicting them from their own land, and has drafted plans that will make this easier. All these attacks are a part of an organised nationwide racist campaign against the rights of Gypsy communities.
Like racism against asylum seekers, racism against Gypsies is socially accepted. In some parts of Britain you can still read signs declaring ‘no Gypsies or Travellers’. If similar racist literature were produced against Jewish or black communities there would be uproar. In a recent case a ‘bonfire society’ burned a caravan effigy bearing the number plate ‘pikey’ (a racist term for Travellers) and escaped prosecution.
It is estimated that there are 90,000 to 120,000 members of the ‘Traveller’ community in Britain, who can be divided into two groups – traditional and new. Traditional Travellers are either of Anglo-Roma Gypsy or Irish Traveller origin and have lived in Britain for centuries. Both groups are recognised in British law as distinct racial groups and should be protected by the 1976 Race Relations Act. It is estimated that in Britain there are 200,000 people who are descended from Travellers but no longer live in caravans. New Travellers are people who have more recently adopted the nomadic lifestyle. All of them are under attack.
One million Gypsies were murdered in the Nazi holocaust, and they remain the targets of persecution, racist attacks and murder in Europe today. An estimated 100,000 Roma were driven out of Kosovo in the ethnic cleansing of the 1990s, 50,000 of whom are in Germany and facing imminent deportation.
Gypsies are one of the most deprived ethnic groups in Britain with the highest rates of illiteracy and infant mortality and, according to a 1987 report, a life expectancy 10 years shorter than that of the settled population. One third of the population has no lawful place to live. 50% of the population live on ‘official’ sites provided by local author-ities. In the same way that the government has allowed council housing to fall into unacceptable disrepair and created a shortage of affordable housing, many sites are run down. Many sites are located in environmentally harmful environments such as beside motorways, sewage processing plants or industrial sites.
Under the 1968 Caravan Act, councils became duty bound to provide sites for Travellers. The 1994 Criminal Justice Act (CJA) removed this duty and resulted in the hounding of Travellers from their homes. Following the CJA, Traveller communities were encouraged to purchase their own land for permanent caravan sites. However, when it came to getting planning permission to install facilities, Travellers were refused and evicted from their own land. For Travellers the planning permission refusal rate is 90%, with an 80% acceptance rate for other communities.
Traveller groups are standing up for their rights, both by fighting the legal battle within the courts, and resisting police and bailiffs at evictions. On 16 March 2005 the court of appeal dismissed an appeal by the Maloney family that Leeds City Council had contravened their human rights by evicting them from their camp at Spinkwell Lane in Wakefield. However, the Court of Appeal referred the case to the House of Lords to decide whether the family can fight the eviction as an infringement of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which states that everyone has a right to respect for their private and family life, home and correspondence.
Dale Farm in Essex is the largest site in the country and is facing eviction due to lack of planning permission. If this goes ahead, 1,800 people will be made homeless. Residents and supporters are mounting a campaign to stop the local council in its tracks and counter the vicious racist propaganda being used against them.
Barnaby Mitchel
More information from
www.travellersupport.org.uk
FRFI 185 June / July 2005
