Shelter Centre

By Phoebe Greenwood

Just outside Montenegro's capital Podgorica, next to the city's rubbish dump, is Konik refugee camp. A sprawl of tin-roofed huts and U.N. tents enclosed by wire-fencing, it is home to more than 2,000 Roma refugees who have lived here for ten years since fleeing violence in Kosovo. It is the largest refugee camp in the Balkans. Hundreds of children live here in inhuman conditions without enough food or water and yet almost no one outside of Montenegro has heard of it.

Conditions in Konik are dire. Fires are a regular threat and often fatal. Three weeks ago, a blaze caused by faulty wiring destroyed 18 wooden huts and left 124 people without shelter. These families now live in U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) tents or have moved in with relatives in their already over-crowded shacks. This time, luckily, no lives were lost.

...