No name, no home… Gypsies from Volovets are still not registered

The head of the Volovets village, Vasyl Panasovich, is anxious about the problems of local Gypsies. ‘The reality that I inherited from the predecessor is the following: this community has documents of permission neither for a house nor for a piece of land. Therefore, in order to help Gypsies to legalize their existence at least somehow, first of all I addressed the regional administration. As it turned out this problem is relevant in all districts of the region.’

In order to become equal members of society, Gypsies at first should get passports. It is estimated that there are almost two hundreds of them in Volovets, and because of the absence of a clear register, nobody knows their exact number. They nomadize all over the region without documents, stop at some areas where they erect their dwellings. They have neither the register book, documents of permission on the land. For this reason they register Gypsies only on a certain street, without pointing the house number.

This month Vasiliy Panasovich held a working meeting, during which he explained to the community the conditions of registration and certification. Also he suggested possible ways of land and house ownership registration. But first of all, according to the head of the village, it is necessary for Gypsies to agree among themselves as to the plan of actions and decide how they would arrange their lives. And only after this, it will be possible to bring the matter to order. Even despite the fact that they themselves ask for documentation for identification, they are still sceptical about the attempts to help them. They say that in such a case ‘boss’ will demand something from them in return.