Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) communities are being forced to live on contaminated land, by motorways and near sewage works or risk arrest, an alarming investigation for openDemocracy has found.
Two-thirds of the 60 short-term ‘transit’ sites in England – and just over half of the country’s 242 permanent sites – are within 100m of one or more such hazards. Yet the new Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act, which came into force in England and Wales at the end of June, forces GRT people into these sites by criminalising trespass and strengthening police powers against unauthorised roadside camps. For Travelling communities, this means that their homes and belongings can be seized, and those convicted fined or jailed.
A number of short-stay transit sites are currently working their way through local councils’ planning departments. The extra sites are supposed to give GRT communities, who are critically underserved by existing sites, more places to stay legally. But experts say some appear deliberately designed to be unsuitable.
