As the displaced residents of Dale Farm in Essex face another round of forced evictions, Elly Robson talks to some of the families and examines the discrimination they face
The storming of Dale Farm by hundreds of riot police at dawn on 19 October 2011 was the money shot that the press had been waiting for follo
wing weeks of legal proceedings; the next day they all went home. But three months down the line, the eviction continues for the Dale Farm community, unreported. Their former home has been systematically destroyed by Constant & Co. bailiffs, who have transformed this once vibrant and close-knit community into a sewage-filled bombsite.
- With nowhere else to go, the vast majority of the displaced Travellers now live on the private road (owned by them) leading to Dale Farm and on their friends’ plots on the neighbouring Oak Lane site. Living in overcrowded conditions, they lack adequate access to water and toilet facilities, the only electricity supply is through noisy and expensive generators, and many of the young children and elderly people are ill. It is an unreported refugee camp, just thirty minutes away from London.
Arriving at the site last week, we were greeted by an elderly man who looked up at the remnants of the 
children’s rope swings hanging from the trees and said ‘What is there to live for? What hope do we have? My wife and I have talked seriously about ending it all. This is no way to live.’ While the trauma of the eviction is still vivid for the residents, it is what happens next that worries them most of all.
Kathleen, an articulate five-year-old with an acute awareness of the challenges facing her community, explained the situation to me: ‘Basildon Council and the police came and they broke everything. They broke the walls, and my granny’s caravan, and they broke all the ground, and even my mum’s back [Kathleen’s mother was hospitalised with a fractured spine during the policing operation]. We were crying and we were so scared. Now, Basildon Council want to move us again, but they can’t put us out on the road because where can we go?’…………………………..
READ FULL ARTICLE AND COMMENTS HERE (with thanks to Red Pepper
http://www.redpepper.org.uk/dale-farm-the-human-cost-of-prejudice/
Related articles
- Dale Farm: a tale of blighted lives for the evicted traveller families | This is Essex (worldwright.wordpress.com)
- Dale Farm eviction: six months on – video (projectbrainsaver.wordpress.com)
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