One of the measures taken by the Slovak State that were aimed against the Roma was the establishment of persecution camps. At first, there were the so-called labour crews. During the existence of the Slovak State, they were spread across the whole Slovakian territory. Formally, they were established for asocial persons, but in most cases this only served as pretence for interning Roma, who constituted approximately half of all inmates. These crews were mostly composed of young Romani men, who were forced to do the most difficult manual labour, such as building dams, railroads and roads. The Roma in these crews worked eleven-hour work days for a minimal wage. It is possible to prove that these crews served a function in persecuting the Roma. The Romani men were accommodated separately and there was a double list of inmates -- a blue register listed the Roma, and a gray one listed all other inmates. However, the most important proof comes with the dissolution of these forced labour crews -- non-Roma inmates were allowed to leave, but the Roma were moved to other camps.

First labour crews were established in 1941. They were in Očová, Most na Ostrove and Horaren Trnava. These three lasted only for a short while and were closed down by the end of 1941. One of the largest labour crews operated in Dubnica nad Váhom (1942 – 1944), together with a few crews in eastern Slovakia (1943 – 1944). In Dubnica nad Váhom, inmates worked for three years constructing a river dam. In eastern Slovakia, there was a whole complex of labour crews in Hanušovce nad Topľou, Bystré, Petič and Nižný Hrabovec.

The Roma in eastern Slovakia built a railroad from Prešov to Strážske. Under the coordination of the Hanušovce nad Topľou crew, the labour crew in Jarabá (1942) built a road from Čertovica to Mýto pod Ďumbierom. A smaller labour crew was established in 1943 in Ilava, with the goal to finish the water dam there. From 1943 to 1944 there was a functioning labour crew in Revúca, which constructed parts of the railroad between Revúca and Tisovec. The last larger labour crew was stationed in Ústie nad Oravou, where Roma inmates worked on constructing the Orava dam, one of the biggest and most important constructions of the Slovak State. This crew finished its work in December 1944, and it was the last labour crew to be dissolved. However, the persecution of the Roma and their concentration in camps did not stop with the dissolution of this crew; quite the opposite.