Makeshift tents and laundry hung to dry on trees near the car park of Finlandia Hall had to leave, along with 32 foreign Roma who had set up camp there, when police evicted the group on Monday. Police patrols have served eviction notices on a weekly basis to camps of itinerant Roma around the city at the request of the Public Works Department of the City of Helsinki. Printed notices have been handed out at dozens of unauthorised camps around the Finnish capital. “Generally the campers have left voluntarily. We have told them how things are, and urged them to find a location that is appropriate for camping”, says Mika Pöyry of the Helsinki Police. “Last week there was a community of 50 tents in Arabianranta, which left after being given an eviction notice. We have not had to use any force.” Helsinki has a policy of zero tolerance toward unauthorised camping. “The view of the city is that Rastila campground is the only place where camping is allowed over here”, says Pekka Henttonen of the Public Works Department. According to Public Works Department project planner Hannu Jukarainen, the number of people camping out in Helsinki has not diminished, even though the department’s cooperation with the police has worked well. “The campers move to a new unauthorised camping place as soon as they get an eviction notice.” One reason for the hard line taken toward unauthorised camping is that the camps have brought many complaints from the public. Mika Pöyry says that people living in the camps include citizens of several European countries - mainly Romanians and Bulgarians. The first of the written eviction notices were printed about three weeks ago in several languages, including Romanian and Bulgarian.
hs.fi
