France repatriates Roma back home
Source: Agencies |
August 20, 2010, Friday
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FRANCE expelled nearly 100 Gypsies, or Roma, to their native Romania yesterday as part of a very public effort by President Nicolas Sarkozy to dismantle Roma camps and sweep them out of the country.
France chartered a flight to Bucharest, which left from Lyon with 79 Roma aboard, Immigration Ministry officials said. Fourteen others were repatriated to Romania aboard a commercial flight from the Paris region earlier in the day, the officials said, adding that another Romania-bound repatriation flight was expected today. Additional flights were scheduled for later this month and September, Romania's Foreign Ministry said.
Those repatriated yesterday left "on a voluntary basis" and were given small sums of money - 300 euros (US$386) for each adult and 100 euros for children - to help them get back on their feet in their home country, a standard French practice, officials said.
Roma advocates countered that the repatriations were hardly voluntary, claiming that those who refused the deal would end up in holding centers and eventually be sent home without funds.
Alexandre Le Cleve, a spokesman for Rom Europe, said the expulsions were pointless because nothing prevented those sent back from immediately returning to France, as many had done in the past.
"For those who left this morning, they can certainly take a plane as early as tonight and come back to France. There's nothing to prevent this," Le Cleve said. "Obviously, these people come back, they are brought to the Romanian border, then come back to France, can leave again and so on. There are some Roma people who have been sent back seven or eight times, each time receiving the famous 300 euros."
France is allowed to repatriate Gypsies from Romania - who as citizens of an EU member state are allowed to circulate freely within the 27-member bloc - if Roma are unable to prove they can support themselves while in France, Le Cleve said.
Sarkozy has linked Roma to crime, calling their camps sources of trafficking, exploitation of children and prostitution.
France chartered a flight to Bucharest, which left from Lyon with 79 Roma aboard, Immigration Ministry officials said. Fourteen others were repatriated to Romania aboard a commercial flight from the Paris region earlier in the day, the officials said, adding that another Romania-bound repatriation flight was expected today. Additional flights were scheduled for later this month and September, Romania's Foreign Ministry said.
Those repatriated yesterday left "on a voluntary basis" and were given small sums of money - 300 euros (US$386) for each adult and 100 euros for children - to help them get back on their feet in their home country, a standard French practice, officials said.
Roma advocates countered that the repatriations were hardly voluntary, claiming that those who refused the deal would end up in holding centers and eventually be sent home without funds.
Alexandre Le Cleve, a spokesman for Rom Europe, said the expulsions were pointless because nothing prevented those sent back from immediately returning to France, as many had done in the past.
"For those who left this morning, they can certainly take a plane as early as tonight and come back to France. There's nothing to prevent this," Le Cleve said. "Obviously, these people come back, they are brought to the Romanian border, then come back to France, can leave again and so on. There are some Roma people who have been sent back seven or eight times, each time receiving the famous 300 euros."
France is allowed to repatriate Gypsies from Romania - who as citizens of an EU member state are allowed to circulate freely within the 27-member bloc - if Roma are unable to prove they can support themselves while in France, Le Cleve said.
Sarkozy has linked Roma to crime, calling their camps sources of trafficking, exploitation of children and prostitution.
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