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SHOCKING

SHOCKING
Posted Thu, 08/19/2010 - 17:53

Dozens of Roma leave France in controversial expulsion
Aug 19, 2010 6:51 PM | By Ulrike Koltermann, Sapa-dpa

Just under 100 Roma (Gypsies) migrants left France on board several charter planes on Thursday, as the country proceeded with plans to expel the migrants to Romania despite criticism at home and abroad.

The first plane with 14 on board — six young men and a family of eight who said they had been in France for a few months looking for work -arrived in the Romanian capital Bucharest late afternoon.

French government officials said the Roma were leaving “on a voluntary basis,” after each adult was paid 300 euros (390 dollars) and 100 additional euros for each child.

It is the largest expulsion seen in France since President Nicolas Sarkozy called for tougher action against Roma who are living in the country illegally.

Since Romanian and Bulgarian Roma are considered European Union citizens, they can return at anytime. They can, however, be deported if they commit a punishable crime or are deemed a burden on society.

France plans to start recording the digital fingerprints of voluntary deportees in September to prevent people from seeking the financial benefit more than once.

The Central Council of German Sinti and Roma called on the French government to abandon the expulsions, arguing that the migrants involved are being sent back to extreme poverty and hardship.

Leading politicians in Romania, on the other hand, were more restrained. President Traian Basescu pledged cooperation with Paris in the handling of Roma criminals, announcing that more police officials would be dispatched to France.

“We understand the position of the French government,” he said.

“At the same time, we support without reservation the right of every Romanian citizen to move freely within the EU.” Meanwhile, French Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux called on the European Union to do more for the integration of Roma.

“I am waiting for the European Commission to show that it is capable of facilitating the Roma’s access to education, jobs and apartments,” he said.

The commission had earlier publicly warned France to follow EU rules, by for instance handling expulsions on a case-by-case basis.

Also on Thursday, French Secretary of State for Family Nadine Morano announced that her country would pursue an agreement with Romania that would regulate how underage, unaccompanied Roma who end up in custody in France should be handled.

A corresponding text is to be taken up by the National Assembly in the autumn, she told the broadcaster Europe1.

At the same time, she criticized the exploitation of some Roma children.

“When you see these people, who sit on the street and use children to beg — some of whom have been given pills so they are dazed and sleep — then I think that you can’t accept this behaviour,” she said.

The expulsion action came after French authorities cleared more than 50 illegal Roma encampments in the last few weeks.

Hortefeux had announced in July that the government intended to dismantle half of all the illegal Gypsy camps in the country — or about 300 -within three months. It also pledged to take harsher measures against criminals among them.

The clampdown came in the wake of a violent clash between police and a group of travellers earlier in July. The riots followed the death of a young Roma man at the hands of police.

The decision to dismantle the camps has been widely criticized by human rights associations, trade unions and opposition politicians, with some saying it amounts to racism and xenophobia.

French opposition politicians have also accused the government of turning the Roma and other itinerants into scapegoats, and using them to deflect attention from ongoing political scandals.

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Erebos's picture

WHO THEY ARE

Thu, 08/19/2010 - 17:56 — Erebos

Who are the Roma?

Roma, also called Gypsies or Romany, are a group of people marked by poverty who live mainly in southern and eastern Europe, though they live throughout the continent. They tend to live in camps, caravans, or informal settlements and have been persecuted throughout history.

Some are Christian and some are Muslim, having converted while migrating through Persia and the Balkans, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Most Roma speak dialects of a language called Romani, which is based on Sanskrit, the classical language of India, the museum says. The language is largely unwritten, however, because of the high rates of illiteracy in most Roma communities, according to information from Minnesota State University.

Where did the Roma come from?

Roma originated in the Punjab region of northern India as a nomadic people and entered Europe between the 8th and 10th centuries, according to the Holocaust museum. They were called Gypsies because Europeans mistakenly believed they came from Egypt.

Many Roma traditionally worked as craftsmen and were blacksmiths, cobblers, tinsmiths, horse dealers, and toolmakers, according to the museum. Others were performers like musicians, circus animal trainers, and dancers. By the 1920s, some were also working as shopkeepers or civil servants.

The number of nomadic Roma was on the decline in many places by the early 1900s, though many "sedentary" Roma often moved seasonally, depending on their occupations, the museum says.

Where did the Roma go in Europe?

Roma were living in Spain, France, England, and large parts of what is today Russia and Eastern Europe by the late 1400s. They suffered persecution in those countries ranging from laws against their language and dress to expulsion, according to Minnesota State. In the beginning of the 15th century, many Roma were forced into slavery by Hungarian and Romanian nobles who needed laborers for their large estates, according to the university.

Roma suffered persecution during World War II. The Nazis judged Roma to be "racially inferior," according to the Holocaust museum. "Their fate in some ways paralleled that of the Jews," the museum said. The Nazis subjected Roma to internment, forced labor, and murder.

"While exact figures or percentages cannot be ascertained, historians estimate that the Germans and their allies killed around 25 percent of all European Roma," the museum says. "Of slightly less than 1 million Roma believed to have been living in Europe before the war, the Germans and their Axis partners killed up to 220,000."

What is the situation for Roma in Europe today?

Many Roma live on the edges of communities or are transient. They suffer massive discrimination throughout Europe, according to Amnesty International, and are often the victims of forced evictions, racist attacks and ill-treatment by police, and are often denied their rights to housing, employment, health care and education.

In Slovakia, thousands of Roma children are placed in special schools and classes designed for pupils with "mild mental disabilities" or in ethnically segregated mainstream schools and classes that provide a substandard education, Amnesty says.

Human Rights Watch expressed concern last year about a wave of attacks on Roma in Kosovo, and the United Nations pointed to mounting racial violence in Russia in 2008 that targeted Roma and other ethnic and religious minorities.

In June 2009, there was a series of attacks on Roma families in Northern Ireland, where the Roma had gone for work.

In Bosnia, Roma are barred from running for president or the upper chamber of Parliament.

The Budapest, Hungary-based European Roma Rights Center sent a letter of concern to Danish authorities last month about the recent mass arrest and deportation of 23 Roma in Copenhagen. They said Danish officials, including the mayor of Copenhagen and the country's justice minister, had made comments blaming the Roma for crimes.

A U.N. report last year cited the cost of deprivation among the Roma. In Bulgaria, it said, their life expectancy is five to six years below the rest of the population and their infant mortality rate is six times the national average. In Hungary, infant mortality among the Roma is nearly four times the country's average, and in Romania it is two and a half times greater, according to the report.

SOURCE:
CNN
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/08/19/france.roma.background/#f...