Shacks without electricity and water, employment mainly in garbage sorting, large families unable to secure a living.

At a breath’s distance from the urban fabric and at the same time excluded from their communities, the Roma experience difficult conditions. where do they live Where do they work? How are they trained? How is the life of children and especially young girls?

The journalist Yannis Souliotis and the Prime Time camera (watch the whole episode here) they entered the harshest Roma ghettos: Aspropyrgo, Menidi, Zefyri, Hexamilia Corinthia and recorded shocking images and testimonies that reveal the daily life in these “uncharted” districts.

The research starts from Examilia, just outside of Corinth.

“Some children go to school and come back hungry. Let me tell you why: there are no jobs. We made 250 applications, to the Municipality here, to the Municipality… Hexamilia – Zevgolatio and we got nothing” says Christos, secretary of the Roma community in Examilia.

Petros and Kostas are 17 years old. They suffocate in the camp. They live with the dream of a normal life, like all young people of their age. “Tell me, what should we do in this village? We live in the germ, in the mud. How can we live in here? We are looking for jobs and we are not getting any,” they say.

In the Spring of 2021, the police raided the camp in Examilia. 33 men and women of the village were arrested for trafficking heroin and cocaine in Corinth.

“We are not opposed to what is called a proper society, we also want the laws of the state, we love the laws of the state, especially I love them. Now for some others who are delinquent, whether they want to or not, they have to lay down” says Nektarios and continues “They’re putting us all in the same bag. They’re putting us in the same bag and it’s not like that. I’m ashamed of that.”

“My humble opinion is that if we don’t send our kids to school and if our kids don’t get an education we’re going to be another 100 years behind,” argues Nektarios.

New Life Aspropyrgos

In the camp in Nea Zoi Aspropyrgos there is no PPC pillar, no bin, almost no roads.

Yiannis is the informal head of the smaller of the two Nea Zoi camps, at the location DYO PEFKA. As he says, “we go to work and when they see that we are Roma, they kick us out. Everywhere. Not only in Aspropyrgos. The Roma will only work in some dump… That is, where non-Roma don’t go. They will work, where there is stench, that’s where they take us.”

54-year-old Despina stands out among the women of the camp. A few years ago she had undertaken to teach savoir vivre to the women of the slum.

“The gypsies. They didn’t have patience. At the post offices. At the banks. They wanted to pass. Let theirs pass well. It’s not in that order. The girls thought it was their turn. (And because I had been busy a little and Mrs. Vavouli. We taught them manners. They didn’t know what patience means. It’s your turn to go to the bank in the hospital” Despina narrates. “I was going from house to house. And we were talking. They were also gathering here. At my house. And I told them you will go to the bank. You will get a number. You will sit in line. You will go to the hospital. You will give your details. You will get paper, number and you will be called by doctors, pediatricians, same goes for super market. And they have learned.”

For many of those living in the camps, crime and illegality are the easy way out and a prescribed path to gain money and power among community members.

In recent weeks, the police have been arresting Roma who traffic in heroin in Western Attica.

As Yiannis Karydakos, deputy commander of Narcotics Prosecution, says “In general, the camps have been associated with deviant and delinquent behaviors. And one of them is drugs.” and continues “These families operate a bit like the mafia in Italy. That is, the members of a family receive the baptism of fire. And gradually, the younger members also become the continuation of the family tradition.”

The roads in the camps of Western Attica are dark and full of potholes. Among the shacks, two-story buildings stand out, with high walls and intense external lighting. Strength indicator or barks for those looking to buy drugs…

“The doors they put in the houses are now more and more powerful to make it difficult for the police to enter, in the event of a police operation. They can have two or three armored doors so that even the special units when they enter have difficulty” according to Yiannis Karydakos.

More children in schools, but…

Although recently the number of children in the camps who go to school is increasing, to this day the majority of them leave the desks before completing high school.

“When I first came, I had four Roma children at school and now we have four hundred and fifty,” says Matina Vavouli – principal of the 7th grade of Aspropyrgos. “Unfortunately not all of them continue and especially the girls who are at the age of 14-15 where they are preparing for marriage.”

“These children are bilingual. And in order for them to be able to learn Greek, and for them to be accepted, they should be co-educated with the children of the dominant society, so to speak” clarifies Ms. Vavouli.

“When my children and grandchildren are hungry I will go and steal”

I have five children, we work seasonally. Now I have 5 children and 7 grandchildren. I see they don’t have milk, yes, I’m going to steal five irons to feed my family. With 5, 6 children and 7 grandchildren yes, I will go steal five irons for the hungry grandchildren to eat. And should I tell you something else? The Government throws us into theft and illegality. I don’t have a job, I have 7 grandchildren and they will call me grandpa, I’m hungry…?? Yes, I will go and steal 100 euros of irons that you have, yes I will. I am speaking here so that people can listen to me, I am going because my children and grandchildren are hungry. I don’t have a job, 100 euros of irons, yes I’ll go get them” declares the Secretary of the Roma in Examilia.

Life changing

Giannis is a first-year student in the European Culture department at the Open University. Before that he had run-ins with the law. How was the transition from one to the other?

The Roma burn something every night – The dump feeds them

“In recent years the problem has become too big” says the Mayor of Aspropyrgos. “If we calculate that at the moment there are around 6-7 thousand Roma, who are registered from an effort made by the Region 5-6 years ago, I think, maybe even more, and if we take for granted that only 250 of them approximately are registered in the Civil Registry, in Aspropyrgos, you understand what problems are created.”

“Every night something burns in Aspropyrgos. They are fires that they light themselves, for various reasons. The first reason is that they burn things that have metal objects in them, i.e. either car tires from which they get the linen, or mattresses from which they get the springs , or mostly they also burn rubble to reduce the volume, so they can bring more” says the Mayor of Aspropyrgos.

The weddings

Nontas Theodoropoulos is a music organizer and goes to weddings all over Greece. He says about Roma marriages “they have some customs, the gifts they put, the gold, the money, customs and traditions very nice, but it saddens me to hear unpleasant things from the media about the Roma, they are not all the same, there are some bad, good and ugly that they say.”.