Sat, Feb 11 2012

French authorities rescue 70 Bulgarian Roma from a burning bus station

Mon, Oct 19 2009 10:25 CET

byNick Iliev

1411 Views 5 Comments
French authorities rescue 70 Bulgarian Roma from a burning bus station

Photo: Bob Strong

About 70 Bulgarian Roma living in Bordeaux, France, had to be evacuated after a fire engulfed a derelict bus station, which the Roma used as a squat, Dnevnik daily reported on October 19, citing French media reports.

The fire engulfed the building late on Saturday night, well into Sunday morning. According to French media, the Roma had been using the station as a shelter for several months.

Medecins du Munde (MDM) or Doctors of the World, an international humanitarian organisation, is now taking care of the displaced Roma families who now face the prospect of sleeping rough. Bordeaux authorities have sealed off the bus station and access to the facility is forbidden.

According to the French television channel France 2, more than a thousand Roma live in the city, most of them in squalid conditions.

Doctors of the World is a non-governmental humanitarian aid organisation established in 1980 by 15 French doctors.

MDM is currently involved with more than 300 projects in more than 80 countries. MDM helps with first aid as well as short-term emergency aid, reconstruction and rehabilitation as well as long-term development projects for a period of up to three years.
MDM has about 7000 members worldwide, about 360 paid staff members and about 6700 volunteers, about 1200 of them working on-site on the organisation's projects.

  • Print
  • Send via email
  • Translate to
  • Share:

Comments

Anonymous*******Tue, Oct 20 2009 10:18 CET

This comment has been removed by the moderator because it contained foul, abusive or discriminating language

Anonymous Wendi Tue, Oct 20 2009 08:08 CET
Report Comment

I can't believe the bigotry of certain commentators . Wishing a group dead because of their ethnicity is akin to genocide.

Anonymous Milen Tue, Oct 20 2009 04:48 CET
Report Comment

You two are inhuman

Anonymous Cosmos Mon, Oct 19 2009 22:24 CET

This comment has been hidden by the moderator because it contained дискриминация.

Anonymous BG_User Mon, Oct 19 2009 16:16 CET

This comment has been hidden by the moderator because it contained дискриминация.


To post comments, please, Login or Register.


Please read the The Sofia Echo forum comments policy.

Police stop Roma group from abducting 11-year-old mother and baby from hospital

Bulgarian Roma from the town of Sliven stormed a hospital in a bid to snatch the 11-year-old Roma mother who recently gave birth to a baby girl.

Hundreds of Roma seek refuge in Canada

The issue moved off the back burner last week when the Vancouver Sun reported that a "sudden wave of refugee claimants has helped make Hungary Canada’s top source of asylum-seekers, prompting Ottawa to call on Budapest to take action — possibly against organised crime elements."

CSKA Sofia supporter contracts swine flu from recent Italy trip

Medical authorities have advised all Bulgarians who travelled to Rome to be on alert and immediately report to the nearest hospital for treatment if they believe they have symptoms associated with the strain.

More in this category

Auction reveals Ceausescu’s personal age of plenty

Iranian silver-plated pigeons, African leopard skins and a Chinese bronze yak were among the 70 items sold in an auction of gifts presented to Romania’s former dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena.

EC praises airports for progress in dealing with extreme weather

Airports were also showing signs of better co-ordination and providing passengers with accurate real-time information, compared to previous period of travel disruption, transport commissioner Siim Kallas said.

Hungary's PM condemns international critics amid economic uncertainty

Viktor Orban defends government's record, new constitution in state-of-the-nation address as he slams European Commission.

Polish PM, digitalisation minister hold public debates on ACTA ratification

PM Donald Tusk invited authors, NGOs, experts and bloggers to a debate on the ACTA copyright agreement, but several key organisations, including the Helsinki Foundation, rejected the invitation claiming that the talks will likely offer no opportunity to discuss concrete issues.

Protesters clash in Budapest as controversial theatre director takes stage

'Dirty Jews' and 'Dirty Nazis' were the most popular chants when two groups clashed in front of Új Színház (New Theatre)

© 2000-2012, Sofia Echo Media Ltd.

Web Design by RIZN

Sofia Echo Media is part of the Economedia Group.
The news and information content on this website is provided by our editorial team and is copyrighted. Any unauthorised reproduction or use of it is strictly forbidden. Reproduction of this website's content is permitted only with prior written permission from the Editor-in-Chief, should be propertly acredited and provide an active link back to our site. Comments posted by the website's visitors are independent of the editorial materials and do not represent the views of sofiaecho.com. Sofia Echo Media cannot be held responsible for the statements contained in visitor comments. The percentаge change in the shares' prices are based on the price of the last transaction of the current session compared to the price of the last transaction of the previous session. Bulgarian Stock Exchange data is not real-time, but updated every 15 minutes, and should not be used as a basis for decisions about buying or selling stock options.