With some 12 million people spread across the continent, the Roma are Europe's largest ethnic minority -- and also among its most disadvantaged. Romany communities in Eastern Europe are often isolated settlements with crumbling infrastructure on the outskirts of cities and towns. German documentary photographer Bjoern Steinz spent time in some of the Romany communities in eastern Slovakia and filed these photos. More of Steinz's work can be seen at his website.
Life In A Romany Settlement
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Budulovskej Street is home to a Roma community in the town of Moldava nad Bodvou, about 30 kilometers from the city of Kosice in eastern Slovakia.
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Clothes dry outside a partly abandoned apartment block on Budulovskej Street.
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Boys use a bucket as a drum in an empty yard.
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The view from the window at the home of Vojtech Hudac and Angelika Ribarova
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A soccer field in the Romany settlement in Moldava nad Bodvou
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A boy returns home on Budulovskej Street.
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A breakdancer shows off his skills.
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Elvira Ribarova at home with her two children
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Inside the home of Vojtech Hudac and Angelika Ribarova
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A band rehearses.
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A man returns from collecting wood to heat his home.
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Social worker Oto Horvath visits the Roma settlement in Moldava nad Bodvou.
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Martina Ferkova with her daughter in their flat at the Stará Tehelňa housing complex, a mainly Romany district in the city of Presov in eastern Slovakia
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Most of the ground-floor windows at the housing complex are broken. Here, a window is covered with blankets.
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A Romany grandmother, originally from the city of Liberec in the Czech Republic, sits under portraits of her deceased son and husband.