Roma ruins

A gentrification project with large shopping mall decimates Budapest's famous 8th district Gypsy quarter and despite protests and appeals dozens of late 19th century period buildings are razed to the ground. A once thriving Gypsy community is largely destroyed. Hundreds of Roma are forced to move out from the crumbling social housing they had lived in for decades. Many are left homeless and those lucky enough to be provided with alternative social housing must move far away or even to another Hungarian region. Despite being the European Union’s biggest ethnic minority with a population of 10 million, the Roma are badly underrepresented and they continue to suffer a range of hate crimes including assault and attacks against their homes and multiple forms of daily discrimination. In Hungary in particular they are regularly scapegoated for any societal problems and are the main target of racist abuse in pro-government media.