By Monday, French authorities had closed 51 of the 300 camps Sarkozy promised to dismantle. The total number of deportees is scheduled to reach 700 by the end of the month.
According to European law, European Union citizens can stay as long as they like in any member-state if they have “enough” money and a medical insurance. Also, the European Union citizens cannot live “illegally” on its territory, as they possess IDs issued by EU country member.
French authorities say since the Roma people cannot prove they can sustain themselves financially, they must go back home. Each deportee left voluntarily and was given a one-time aid sum of $380 for each adult, and $127 for each child.
The situation has kicked up a lot of dust internationally with the media exerting close scrutiny on the case.
However, the measures are nothing new. Over the last three years, the French government has expelled scores of immigrants of Roma origin, culminating in the deportation of 12,000 in 2009. According to the Office of French Immigration and Integration, during the first quarter of this year, 316 Bulgarian and 2,229 Romanian Roma people were repatriated.
So why is there so much noise being made this time around? The difference is that Sarkozy himself has raised the political profile of the situation.
“The French president is trying to expel Roma for quite some time so this is not new, but what is new is that the government has chosen to raise its political profile out of this issue,” said Robert Kushen, executive director of the Budapest-based European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) in a telephone interview.
Recently, Sarkozy’s popularity ratings have slumped to record lows due to high unemployment, an unpopular pension reform drive, and a major scandal involving his Labor Minister Eric Woerth, accused of making illegal donations to Sarkozy’s presidential campaign in 2007.
Sarkozy announced at the end of July that he would disband the 300 camps and at the same time pledged to introduce legislation before the end of the year to solve the Roma “problem,” which according to the French government threatens public order and safety. The declaration came after a series of violent clashes between French police and Roma rioters.
The deportations are part of a larger strategy to clean up what the government sees as foreign criminal elements. In terms of the strategy’s success at currying favor with the French electorate, the results are mixed.
According to a survey by Le Figaro from Aug. 6, a total of 79 percent of French citizens surveyed said they approve the measures taken against the Roma encampments and against foreign criminal elements in general.
However, a survey conducted by pollsters CSA for Marianne magazine this month, shows that 51 percent of French population disapproves Sarkozy’s idea of stripping criminals of French nationality if they obtained it during the last 10 years.
The survey revealed also that 69 percent of French citizens think government policies to tackle crime have been ineffective since 2002 when Nicolas Sarkozy took the position of Interior minister. Moreover, 66 percent of the French see the cuts of police force under Sarkozy as the main reason for growing crime, while only 47 percent think the reason is the immigrant population.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the president and founder of the opposition Left Party, described as “pitiful” the French government’s policy toward Roma and accused Sarkozy of sparking a climate of tension, Euractive reported.
Internationally, Sarkozy hasn’t fared much better.
Romania’s Foreign Minister Teodor Baconschi expressed his concern about the risk of “populist provocation” and “creating xenophobic reactions at a time of economic crisis” during a media appearance.
European Commission spokesperson Amelia Torres commented that EU countries have the right to take security measures regarding foreigners residing on their territory, but warned that the European Commission is “following the situation with great attention,” according to Brussels-based Euractiv.
The United Nations Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination criticized France at a U.N. anti-racism panel last week.
One committee member said some of the measures on Roma people in France were reminiscent of the period of France’s Vichy government, which collaborated with the German Nazi occupiers in World War II, AFP reported.
A pan-European Problem
Kushen from ERRC says Roma have been a target of discrimination for centuries. They have been marginalized, been a target of the Nazi genocide during the World War II, and continue to be subject to discrimination and exclusion throughout Europe.
Roma or Romani people are an ethnic group whose origin traces back to medieval India. Today, they are mostly in Central and Eastern Europe. They are known for their nomadic life. Gypsies, as they are also called, do not have a country, but live on the territory of other countries.
According to Robert Kushen, the EU has obligations to protect and assist Europe’s Roma people.
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Kushen and his team of lawyers are now monitoring the situation and will interview people, who were expelled. They will determine whether they can take legal action to challenge this expulsion at the European Court of Human Rights. They will also generate as much attention on the situation as possible, and will push the EU to develop a strategy on the issue.
“We have filed a complaint against France in the European Committee of Social Rights on the Roma housing policy and practice, and we won that case in the beginning of this year. The committee found there is a violation of the European Social Charter because France failed to provide adequate accommodations to Roma and travelers.”
The lawfulness of the deportations has to be considered case by case, according to European laws. However, the way it has been done, namely on a mass scale, presents another issue concerning the whole of Europe.
“The way the expulsions have been made, the fact that this measure was aimed at a specific ethnic group: the Roma from Romania and Bulgaria, the way this was publicized, the way it was communicated to the French, and to the European societies, leads to the conclusion that it is motivated by racist attitudes. And it provokes racist moods among French and European communities,” commented Krassimir Kanev, chairman of the Sofia-based Bulgarian Helsinki Committee in a telephone interview.
Kanev worries that by taking such extreme measures, the French president creates a portrait of an ethnic group as being criminal.
Not over yet
The expulsion of illegal foreigners may be legal but it may also aggravate the plight of the Roma people. The problem comes from the fact that Roma repatriated back to their home countries like Romania and Bulgaria face an even tougher reality there and are again pressured to search for emigration opportunities.
“If you see these people in Romania, you will understand why they had migrated. They don’t have their basic needs covered in their own countries, there is a lack of basic infrastructure, electricity, water, work, education doesn’t work properly, also in Romania discrimination toward Roma is a daily life,” said Sánchez-Rubio in a telephone interview.
“When they have come back to Romania, they really don’t have many opportunities. Facing these, Roma are immediately thinking to move again,” said added.
“As for the people, I think it is clear they will go back to Romania and Bulgaria. It will be a disruption to their life but later they will return to France,” notes Kushen.
And now, Italy has hinted that it will follow France’s example. Italy’s Interior Minister Roberto Maroni announced on Aug. 21 Italy’s wish to be able to expel EU citizens that do not meet minimum requirements for income and housing and who weigh on the host state’s finances.
Social integration
Sánchez-Rubio points out that the European Union has provided huge amounts of money to member states, for conducting a policy of social inclusion of Roma and other ethnicities.
“The Romanian government receives a lot of money from the European Social Fund and money for infrastructure development, and it is not clear if the money allotted for Roma was spent for this, at the end of the day,” she says.
{etRelate 41212, 40050}“We also appeal that the European money should be spent in the proper way, so as those Roma benefit from it and live normally,” adds Sánchez-Rubio.
According to Sánchez-Rubio’s experience, the problem with Roma inclusion can be resolved in a positive manner and social inclusion of Roma is a reality. She is confident that the EC has the necessary instruments to tackle the problem and should play more actively its role of a guardian of the European treaty which clearly prohibits discrimination on the grounds of ethnicity.
“Because this is a European problem, of all member-states—Roma are also European citizens,” she said.
