I saw hopelessness and resignation. I saw the eyes of those who have no power, no rights, no freedom of choice. Their homes are shacks. They live among people who do not want them, who do not want to see or acknowledge such appalling living conditions. They are refugees with no country of their own. Their dwellings seem to come from a time long ago – before sewers, before clean running water. Who are these people? They are the Roma, the gypsy people.

On Monday, June 25, a Roma participant at the Nansen Center in Bujanovac, Serbia, showed us a Roma camp just outside of town. The trip had been on our original schedule, but once it was time to leave, our guide was not sure the visit was such a good idea. While our intention was to get an understanding of the Roma situation in Serbia, our guide was concerned that the people would feel looked at as if they were zoo animals. In the end, we decided to go. I expected to drive for a while before arriving. The ride was less than five minutes, however, which meant that the camp was within walking distance of the Nansen Center. I was surprised that such primitive living conditions existed so close to a town.

The Roma are a displaced people living all over Europe. In Bujanovac, they had no political representation until recently. Nansen Dialogue in Bujanovac has worked with the local Roma to unite their four or five political parties into one, to help them gain municipal representation. Since the people in the camp we visited are refugees from Kosovo, they have no official document, which means they cannot go back to where they came from.

Essentially, a once nomadic group of people is stuck in a camp outside of a divided community (separated into areas of ethnic Serbs and Albanians) with few options for positive change.

The sun blazed hot as we got out of the cars. Our group consisted of the five of us from PLU, Steinar, two people from the Nansen Center and one member of the Roma community – our guide – who has gained an elected position in the municipal government. I do not know what I expected to see, but the sights that met my eyes will not soon be forgotten. We walked across the dry, litter-covered land, in between a row of dwellings that can be described best as makeshift shacks. They were made of corrugated steel, old plastic and cloth. Tires on the roofs held down white plastic tarps. The people looked at us as we walked through and children in mismatched outfits walked curiously behind us.

We entered the main part of the camp and were greeted by an elder who had participated in one of the Nansen Dialogue seminars held at Nansen Academy in Lillehammer. We walked over open sewers and stagnant pools of water. We peered down dark hallways not tall enough to walk through standing upright. We saw piles and piles of garbage lining the paths of the camp. Groups of people of all ages sat under awnings, talking amongst each other and watching us as we walked through.

When we finished walking through the camp, a gathering of people surrounded us, their dark, blue-green eyes staring in curiosity. Most of the Roma people are not working because they cannot find jobs; getting hired is difficult.

Our guide told us that one of the biggest problems is disposing of the bodies of people who die. They have little money to pay for proper burial and do not want to leave dead bodies lying around. As one solution, people hoard their food and sell it in town to make extra money. And sometimes, elders don’t eat for a year to save money to pay for proper burial, according to the translation of our guide.

The most difficult part of the experience was not the filth or inadequate shelter, but the hopelessness. These displaced people literally have nowhere to turn. And in these modern times, it is painful to acknowledge that thousands of people in a developed part of the world are living so miserably, without any way to find empowerment. They are abandoned. They are stuck in a country in which they don’t belong and have little hope of moving elsewhere.

Figuring out how to share this experience is difficult. I left the camp feeling overwhelmed and depressed. All I can do for now is to continue processing what I saw, and sharing my experience so that others come to know the travesty of this group of people. If I have learned anything from this trip, I have learned the power of helping people tell their stories. Telling the Roma story will be part of how I give back to everyone who made this trip possible. I want to help spread awareness about the Roma plight so their suffering is no longer silent to the world. In doing this, I will also be publicizing the work of the people in the Nansen Dialogue Network.

As a final note, we have no pictures from this experience because of the sensitivity of the visit.