Blagoevgrad

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Blagoevgrad municipality is situated in the northwestern part of Blagoevgrad Province, in the western part of Bulgaria, at the border with North Macedonia. 
The municipality includes Blagoevgrad and 25 villages. 
According to unofficial data from the representatives for the local Roma community, approximately 3 000 Roma are living in Blagoevgrad.
They are settled in 3 different parts of the municipalities, in Blagoevgrad and in the villages of Pokrovnik and Padesh. 
The municipality develops project proposals under the Operational Programmes. The municipality wants to start working more actively in the field of social inclusion of marginalized groups. In recent years there has been active migration to major cities in the country and abroad, high unemployment, fewer children in schools.

Some of the main issues they face are:
- Illegal houses;
- A huge number of the population emigrate to Western Europe;
- High unemployment rate;
- A huge number of people do not have health insurance;
- Areas in Roma neighborhoods without running water.