Turkish gov’t to announce reform package for Roma next month

BOLU – Anadolu Agency

‘We have prepared a package for girls and boys as well as to how to settle the families in a home altogether,’ Family and Social Policies Minister Şahin. AA photo

The Turkish government is planning to announce a reform package for the Roma people for their “employment and family life” issues next month, according to Family and Social Policies Minister Fatma Şahin.

The package will have articles about the education, settlement and family issues with which the Roma people are struggling, said Minister Şahin recalling the government’s project of new settlements for the Roma people in several cities will be part of this project.

“The Roma people’s completion of school rate is very low. This also leads to lower employment rates. They cannot enter the employment world... we have early age marriage problems in girls. This also resulted from lower rates of schooling. We have prepared a package for girls and boys as well as to how to settle the families in a home altogether,” said Şahin yesterday.

Şahin said she would announce the package, prepared jointly by the six ministries, in Edirne next month along with Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ and Health Minister Mehmet Müezzinoğlu.
Recalling the mass housing built particularly for the Roma people, Şahin said these places were turned into social systems for Roma people.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also referred to these mass housing complexes for Roma people in the government’s democratization package recently.

“We want to make them the primary component of the locations where they live by projects of housing social support to increase their schooling rates,” said Şahin.

She also said that the majority of the housing projects for Roma people were located in the Thrace region.