ROMA MINORS AS VICTIMS OF ECOLOGICAL CRIMINALITY

Abstract

Environmental protection is a comprehensive process that can be seen briefly through the prevention or control of water, air and soil pollution. The environment is damaged due to the excessive use of natural resources and the generation of large amounts of waste that nature cannot accumulate, but the need for its reuse, recycling or incineration is imposed. A serious problem in this area that we are facing are the specific activities of minors who, from an early age, spend time in unsanitary landfills collecting secondary raw materials, but also committing various illegal acts in the form of theft and damage to public goods with the aim of obtaining materials for which there is an illegal market high demand such as metals and copper wires. Minors, who in the majority of cases belong to the Roma ethnic group, thus become victims of environmental crime because they are exposed to child labor in unsafe and unhygienic conditions for a long period of time, thus damaging their health and endangering normal growth and development. Solving this problem requires a wider involvement of society and a multidisciplinary approach because it is necessary to find an adequate measure so that the actors of these activities, especially minors, are stimulated to perform their work in a legal way and generate income at the same time without endangering their own health, their lives and not polluting environment. A significant change of consciousness is needed among the Roma population, who for now have a very strong understanding that they do not need legal jobs that provide them with regular income and later a pension because they are convinced that they will not even experience it.