Forgotten by the state, neglected by the system – this is how the story of several families of former workers who have been living in the run-down Burin pavilion in Baško Polje since the eighties of the last century, and even though they have no other housing solution – the eviction process was initiated. The Club Adriatic complex in Baško Polje was recently taken over by a company owned by powerful entrepreneurs Pavel Vujnovac, Damir Spudić, Josip Jurčević and Ante Bračić.
The tears of women and mothers who no longer have the strength to fight. She and her daughters are threatened with eviction from this 27 square meter apartment. She and the youngest sleep in the living room, and the older one in a tiny little room.
“Our hopes have sunk so much, we are already mistreated so much that tomorrow they tell me, here is a three-room apartment, what will I do when I get sick, I have diabetes, I have blood pressure, I have two girls who can’t go anywhere,” she says Smiljka Pejković from Baški Polje.
They have no place either. Along with Smiljka, all these are the former workers of Baški Polje, for whom the Bura pavilion has been their home since 1982. A total of five families and two singles, including 60-year-old pensioner Ivo, who was supposed to be evicted this morning, but the court accepted the objection of the right to a home, so the evictions were postponed.
“In my opinion, the Makarska court is most to blame for this situation. Even now, it would be illogical if I were evicted, and for three years now, our claim for the right to a home has been in the drawer with them. Where did they get that right from?”, he asks Ivo Antunović.
All of them have solutions for temporary residence and have spent their entire lifetime from their salary for the promised apartments in the eastern part of Makarska. The complex was first owned by the JNA, then the army and the Ministry of Defense, so the state privatized and sold it. The owners changed, they would ask about the status, but there was never a solution.
“I’m tired of all this, we asked, we asked, we begged, but they really don’t listen to us,” says Smiljka Pejković.
Everything went downhill for these people in 2011, when foreclosures for utilities started arriving, and in 2019, foreclosures for the apartment. The Klub Adriatic complex is taken over by the company Adria Grupa Baško Polje, and with the arrival of new owners – Vujnovac, Jurčević and Spudić, the problems of forgotten residents grow even more.
We also asked the director of the Adriatic club for a statement, but he told us that he was on a business trip and could not make a statement.
“And I just thank the gentlemen for doing this. Do they have their parents, do they have hearts, do they have feelings, do they have anything?”, he asks Ankica Žarković from Baški Polje.
In these 27 square meters, Ankiča’s son was born and grew up here, and now he is threatened with being thrown out onto the street. “This outside is my entrance hall, look, I’m here now, he’s disassembling everything and asking the director if he has any questions about putting things together if it takes me a while, he says he has no questions,” he adds.
Ivan, who has already packed everything even though he has nowhere to go, takes us through his apartment.
“I dream that the request to resolve my housing issue in 1999. It’s sitting in a drawer now, it’s been collecting dust since ’99 when my kids were little,” he said. Ivan Nogalo.
These people are victims of the system, an independent councilor from Baška Voda who submitted several reports to USKOK tells us. He blames Mayor Roščić for everything, who he says favored private individuals by repurposing land.
“They are demolishing building blocks, it’s about 30-40 thousand square meters, they declared them non-building blocks in 2017, so that today, when the team I mentioned earlier owns those same blocks, the mayor and the council president tried with all their might to convert the non-building blocks in construction. Simply put, you bought it for 15 euros, only with the signature of the mayor and the president of the council, it goes to 300 to 500 euros,” he said. Josip Topalovićmunicipal councilor of Baška voda (Independent youth list).
“I have nothing to lose. I brought a sleeping bag and a tent wing, I can sleep in the forest, but I won’t resist,” says Nogalo.
The fate of these people is still uncertain and it is certain that, as many times before, they failed the institutions and the system that forgot them.
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