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Galbavy: Special Police Forces in Roma Settlements No Solution
Thursday 25 March 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, March 25 (TASR) - Sending special police forces to Roma settlements to prevent crimes, as proposed by the Slovak National Party (SNS), is no solution, Government Proxy for Roma Ludovit Galbavy responded on Thursday.
"The special forces, wearing masks, aren't supposed to protect public order in settlements. They're supposed to be there for something else, while other people should to that (maintaining order)," said Galbavy.
"We must begin at (the level of) municipalities. If they neglected the problem, then we have arrived at the current situation. The municipalities must begin to deal with it and we're ready to help them at any time," said Galbavy.
Galbavy rejected SNS's proposal to introduce statistics of Roma crime. "We won't separate crimes of Roma and the others, as only crimes exist in Slovakia. Moreover, the Police Corps, which is the only body having statistics of crimes, haven't recorded any increase in crime in those localities (inhabited by Roma)," said Galbavy.
With respect to SNS's proposal to introduce the so-called social cards to prevent access of Roma to social benefits in cash (that they often booze away within a few days, according to SNS), Galbavy said that such a measure has been already introduced. "We have the institute of 'special receiver', and several municipalities are using it with positive results," said Galbavy, referring to the changes that were introduced along with the decentralisation of social services to the regional level in 2006.
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