The tragedy that happened to our families was quickly forgotten and what was promised to us - a roof over our heads - was not fulfilled.
This is what the family members of the victims of the fire near Volujica said yesterday, who entered the building of the Municipality of Bar yesterday during a protest in front of that institution. After they were removed from the corridors and driveways of the local administration by the old porter and the head of security, he received them Jovo Krstajić from the Secretariat for Local Self-Government.
Four representatives of the family Bislims went to the building of that local self-government for an interview, after the porter told them to choose "three serious men" to enter. Parents of two children who died in a fire in mid-February were also at the protest.
Kennedy Bislimi he said that during last week's protest in front of the Municipality, they were admitted to an interview with representatives of the local administration and the Center for Social Work, when "they were promised that their housing issue would be resolved in five days".
"Since then, seven days have passed and no one has called us. Neither the Municipality of Bar, nor the Center for Social Work, nor the Roma Council, no one. Those were false promises and no one is turning to us," he told "Vijesti".
They invited the president of the Roma Council of Montenegro to the meeting with Krstajić, which was also attended by journalists Mensura Šalaja who asked them in a video call what was happening and whether there was anything new in the past period.
Šalaj previously addressed the public with a statement in which he said that he is in continuous communication with the Bislimis. However, the Bislimi brothers deny this and claim that they did not receive any information from him.
"They stayed on the street again, in dilapidated shacks and improvised homes and in vans in bar parking lots. When we were there a week ago, they told us that we would receive either the money or the house in five days. There is none of that. The president and others in the municipality have a place to sleep, they have a house, they have a bathroom to bathe in. We have nowhere. We will sleep outside the door of the municipality until they find us what they also have", he said Nasser Bislimi.
Fatmir Bislimi he told "Vijesti" that he lost four family members in the fire, including his wife. He believes that everyone quickly forgot about it, even though it was a tragedy not only for him but for the whole of Montenegro.
Bislimi talked about what that night looked like under Volujica. He says that he was woken up by his daughter's screams and that he ran out of the shack that was already on fire, and he saw the electric cables on fire. When he came out of his, he ran to his son's shack to help them.
"It's as if nothing happened", said Bislimi and added that he and 25 members of his immediate family have nowhere to sleep.
For two or three days, according to him, they brought them food, and now they don't even get that anymore. As he said, he feels bad because he does not have the conditions to create a roof over his family's head, because the home they managed to secure burned down.
Competent institutions, as previously told to "News" from the Municipality of Bar and the Ministry of Labor, provided an apartment and a house for rent where some members of these families lived. Kenedi Bislimi said that they were evicted from those accommodations, because no one wants to put up with noise, a lot of children and their games that sometimes cause damage.
This is why they want their own roof, not someone else's. They are not looking, as they claim, for houses, apartments and villas, but for their barracks to be renovated or new ones to be built.
There are about 80 members in the family of the Bislimi brothers, almost half of whom are children under 11 years old. They said that in seven days they will again organize a protest in front of the Municipality of Bar if no one offers them a solution to their problem. As they pointed out, they are looking for a meeting with the president of the local administration Dušan Raičević.
Fatmir Bislimi claims that they are ready to go to Podgorica, in front of the Government and the President's building, until someone is ready to fully listen to them.
Children are in the worst situation
Women from the Bislimi family with children were one of the first in front of the local government building. "Vijesti" journalists said that they live in very bad conditions, unworthy of a human being, and that they only want basic conditions, not towers and cities".
Bislim sugarand she said that she wants to enroll her daughter in school in two months, but she doesn't know if it's right since she now has nowhere to bathe them and wash clothes, and she doesn't want to "go to school like that".
"I'm in the shack behind the 'Franca' market, a lot of them have come to me since the fire. It's tight for us, we don't have food for everyone, and the children suffer the most. I'm begging, what I'll do, for them. My husband works when he can and as much as he can," she said.
Sanela Bislimi he thinks it's a shame how society and authorities treat them since they came from Kosovo to Montenegro in 1999 and have lived there for 25 years.
She said that she is the only one who receives around 300 euros in social assistance, which she spends on electricity and a few things for her children, i.e. grandchildren. In addition to meals in the National Kitchen, as she said, they eat themselves. The women beg and collect around 20 to 30 euros a day, with which they buy food, which they prepare in large pots and everyone shares the meals.
According to her, many of them can't get a job anywhere because they don't have papers, and those who do can't find a decent job because they don't have the conditions to live, bathe and train properly. In addition, they also have to take care of children who are small and cannot "be on the street alone".
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