London Gypsies and Travellers is looking to the United Nations to hold the UK government to account for racial discrimination in housing. The UN Committee for the Eradication of Racism will be scrutinising the government’s record on combating racism and racial discrimination at a hearing in Geneva between 5th and 12 August and LGT will be presenting evidence.
Mena Mongan, LGT’s Community Engagement Officer, will tell the Committee about her own experiences: “As an Irish Traveller living in London, I see that my culture is being ethnically cleansed. The reality is that my children face discrimination and exclusion, and they cannot be proud of their culture and heritage. We have a vision of London where the settled community will welcome Gypsies and Travellers as neighbours.”
Every day, LGT fights against the social exclusion and discrimination experienced by the community. The organisation’s submission to the UN highlights that Gypsy and Traveller households in the capital suffer the worst rates of overcrowding: 32.6% live in overcrowded conditions compared to a London average of 19.6%. This is due to no additional Gypsy or Traveller caravan sites being built in the capital since 1996. The government abolished local authorities’ duty to provide caravan sites in 1994.
A Travellers’ site in Thurston Road in Lewisham was closed in 2009 to make way for a bus station. Its residents were forced into temporary accommodation, in standard housing, and they are still waiting 15 years later.
Temporary accommodation in general is substandard, with more than 50% containing hazards to health. Standard bricks and mortar housing is often culturally unsuitable for Gypsies and Travellers whose protected characteristic is their culture and heritage of nomadism. They are exposed to racism from neighbours, neglect or discrimination accessing local authority services. They are also disconnected from families and community support, and this impacts mental health.
Lewisham council has not yet approved the construction of a new site to accommodate the displaced families. In the same period, existing sites have been neglected to the point of dilapidation and two of the 36 London sites have been closed.
Nancy Hawker, LGT’s Policy and Research Officer, said: “The London housing crisis is structured along racist lines in general. Gypsies and Travellers in particular are living in some of the worst conditions and forced into homelessness and squalor. This is shameful for a city so full of wealth as London.”
“The national, regional and local authorities need to be held to account and we are looking to Geneva to give some clear recommendations to the UK government.”
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