Family representatives Bislims, who survived a fire in a settlement near Volujica in February last year, claim that they have contacted the Roma Council on several occasions for this and many other reasons, but that they have not received an adequate response.
The president of that body denies this. Mensur Send, claiming that they had done everything in their power, and that the Bislimis had refused the offer to have their houses built after the fire.
As the Bislimijas and their friends told Vijesti, they had contacted Shalaj countless times after the fire in February last year, which left them without their makeshift homes and four family members. At first, he allegedly occasionally informed them about the activities of the authorities and promised some kind of help, but after that they were unable to get in touch with him.
Two children, a teenage girl and a woman died in a fire that broke out in the Bar Roma settlement under Volujica in mid-February 2024. One person was injured, and the fire in the dead of night destroyed the makeshift homes and barracks, where about 35 people lived. That's when the Bislimi family's arduous journey to survive and have a roof over their heads began. They spent the night under the open sky, with relatives in the makeshift settlement in Šušanj, in cars in parking lots, and the then Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, headed by Naida Nišić, temporarily housed them in a resort on Ivanova Korita, which they voluntarily left.
After that, they told "Vijesti", Šaljaj rarely answered their phone calls, without providing specific information and assistance, depriving them of the money that had been paid into their account for these families by the Municipality of Bar and the relevant ministry.
However, Šaljaj denies this in an interview with "Vijesti" and says that the Roma Council, above all, had a coordinating role between relevant institutions and Roma families affected by the tragedy in Bar.
At the very beginning, as he stated, in cooperation with the Mayor of the Municipality of Bar Dušan Raičević, and the Islamic Community headed by the Reis Rifat Fejzic and the imam Meeting with the mujdin, it was agreed that the Municipality would cover the funeral costs of the victims. In addition, the Municipality paid 12.000 euros to the account of the Roma Council, as assistance to the families of the victims of the fire. The funds were fully handed over to the family members, as confirmed by the Bislimijas.
When asked how many Roma families in Bar they are in active contact with and what types of assistance they are specifically working on, Šaljaj replied that they communicate with "the main representatives of the Roma communities."
"A special focus was on five families who, thanks to the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare and Minister Nišić, were relocated to a resort in Cetinje after the fire. There they were provided with accommodation, food and all basic needs, and a total of 82 of them stayed for a month," said Šaljaj.
After that, says Šaljaj, an agreement was reached that these five families would receive new houses, and until then the Ministry would cover the rent costs. In addition, he notes, they were provided with assistance through clothing and footwear from the Red Cross of Montenegro, food and accommodation from the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, and school supplies and books from the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation, which enabled the children's education to continue unhindered.
"We were involved throughout the entire process, from their stay in Cetinje to their return to Bar. After they were provided with temporary accommodation, the Municipality of Bar and the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare jointly decided to build five houses for this family on municipal land between Bar and Ulcinj," said Šaljaj.
Unfortunately, he says, the families rejected the offer because the location was not suitable for them due to its distance from the city center. After rejecting this help, Šaljaj believes that further communication no longer made sense, because they could not find a common solution.
When asked why they rejected this proposal, some members of the Bislimi family responded that it was not an acceptable option for them, since it was far from their current place of residence, far from potential jobs and income.
Šaljaj also denied the Bislimi family's claims that he visited them only once, after the fire with Raičević, and emphasized that he had visited them several times, including two visits to Cetinje, to provide them with support and ask for patience regarding resolving the housing issue.
"However, when they rejected the offer to build them houses with all the necessary living conditions, I stopped further communication because we had exhausted all possibilities of agreement."
The Roma Council, he said, is primarily concerned with the domicile population in Montenegro. Although the members of the Bislimi family are internally displaced persons from Kosovo, he believes that they have shown maximum human and institutional readiness to help them, which, unfortunately, has not met with their full cooperation. “It is also important to note that the Roma Council has an advisory role and does not have executive powers. Our activities are reflected in proposals and mediation between the Roma community and state institutions,” he said.
In addition to the aforementioned fire situation from February last year, Šaljaj concluded, they received another request for help from Sutomore, also from a member of the Beslimi family, to which they responded in a timely manner.
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