The Roma encampment known as Casilino 700 in Centocelle park in east Rome has been cleared. On 11 November police began the operation to move the camp’s inhabitants – mostly Romanians – and demolish the shantytown where they had been living for the past year. Reports estimate that between 300 and 500 Roma were forced to leave the camp; the city council offered social assistance and places in refuge centres, but only to women and children. All refused the offer of assisted repatriation to their country of origin.

The operation was part of the so-called Piano Nomadi to re-organise the nomad camps around the city. The plan includes the closure of 80 unauthorised camps and nine so-called “tolerated” camps, and the development of 13 authorised ones, which will provide inhabitants with basic amenities and housing.

With the new authorised camps yet to be finished however, the people evicted from Casilino 700 had no official place to go. Around 100 people began to set up home in an abandoned warehouse in Via dei Gordiani but they were moved on the following day. Dozens of people have since been transferred to a former paper museum at Via Salaria 971.

The council estimates that it will take around 20 days to clean and decontaminate the former encampment, after which Centocelle park will be re-opened. It was closed to the public over a year ago for reasons of safety. In addition to the encampment the park was also the site of illegal rubbish tips containing hazardous waste such as asbestos. The lean-to shacks and huts of the Roma camp were constructed largely from materials found in these tips.

The city council has said the larger Casilino 900 camp will be cleared by the end of January.