Ex-deportees say Compensation Regulation leaves them no chance to get back their confiscated property

Roughly a hundred persons representing ex-deportees gathered on Wednesday, June 13, in front of the Government building to request compensations, facilities, social protection and equal rights with other underprivileged categories. Although they spent more than an hour in the lobby of the Government building, the group’s delegates were not allowed to see the Prime Minister and none of the Government representatives came out to talk to them. Valentina Sturza, the chairperson of the Association of Former Expatriates and Political Prisoners said that even though it has been more than 10 years since the adoption of the law on the rehabilitation of repressed persons, the problems confronting this category of people are still unresolved. In her words, the Regulations providing for compensations for repressed persons, approved by the Government on June 5, 2007, is a “useless document”, as it contains a number of provisions which render it ineffective. In particular, the ex-deportees and repressed persons are required to submit, along with the application for the recovery of assets or comparable compensation, at least 7 other documents, such as the certificate for receiving benefits, the heirship certificate confirming the relation with the repressed person etc, documents which they do not have, Valentina Sturza said. Besides the recovery of property, the former deportees complain about the lack of proper benefits and compensations they should enjoy. “We are starving with a pension of 450 lei, while those who stole our land and property have grown rich on our backs. Not only have they stolen our childhood and adolescence, but also our secure old age” said Elisaveta Nani, a once-deported woman. After the passive protest in front of the Government, the former deportees headed for the square of the Rail Station, which hosts twice a year, on June 13 and July 6, actions in memory of the victims of the two en masse deportation waves of 1941 and 1949.