A COLONY of 300 gypsies have refused to leave a shanty town they have set up in the outskirts of Sevilla out of solidarity to the family of a young man shot dead in the city.
For three months, 35 families have been living in corrugated iron shacks near the ring-road after fleeing the Tres Mil Viviendas district following the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old boy.
Six people have been arrested for the shoot-out.
Since the mass exodus of gypsies from the neighbourhood, some have attempted to return to their abandoned homes but have been stopped by the extended family of the victim.
Mediators from the gypsy community who are working with authorities in an attempt to resolve the issue, say the refugees are prevented from returning home due to ‘Romany law’ which dictates solidarity within the community.
With temperatures in the area reaching 40ºC this month, the families are unable to sleep in their huts due to the heat.
During meetings with authorities and mediators, only men are allowed to speak and if women attempt to do so – many of whom are young girls who stand breast-feeding their babies during the reunions – they are ordered to be quiet.
Children, who do not go to school and are given the free rein of the camp, relieve themselves publicly on the grass, mediators report.
Fights have also started due to gypsies from other areas, who are unrelated to the fatal shooting but have been evicted from their homes by the council, squatting in the camp.
One of the mediators says they hope to avoid a ‘massacre’ between rival clans, but that “unfortunately for us gypsies, if one of them commits a wrongdoing, we all have to leave the area.”
Around 20 gypsy associations in the city have called for the camp inmates not to return to Tres Mil Viviendas, fearing an outbreak of violence if they do so.
Only three of the families with homes in the district have bought theirs legally, mediators reveal.
The others either purchased them cash in hand via private, non-legal agreements, or simply occupy them without being the owners.
Local authorities have been delivering food parcels to the camp and say they intend to install running water for the inmates.
The gypsy community says it does not plan to leave the shanty town until September at the earliest.