FRANCE SENT dozens of Roma on flights home to Romania yesterday in the first mass repatriation since French president Nicolas Sarkozy unveiled a crackdown on crime, a move condemned by human rights groups.
Some 60 Roma left on a chartered plane from Lyon and about a dozen boarded a flight from Paris, the first wave of transfers in a campaign to send 700 people living in squalid camps across France back to Romania and Bulgaria by the end of the month.
Following riots in two French cities last month, Mr Sarkozy ordered 300 illegal camps of Roma dismantled. The move came as part of a crime crackdown targeting immigrants the government blames for a rise in violent crime in France’s poor suburbs.
Roma who agree to leave receive €300 and an additional €100 for each of their children.
The French government says the departures are all voluntary, though some Roma say they were coerced to leave and many are vowing to return to France.
“I want to return. It’s much easier there. Here we don’t have any chance, no jobs, nothing,” Ovidiu, a thin man of 23 from the western Romanian city of Oradea on the border with Hungary, said after arriving at Bucharest.
France repatriated some 10,000 Roma last year and other European countries, including Germany, Italy, Denmark and Sweden have taken similar steps.
But the latest deportations have gained more attention and some French politicians, including a deputy in the president’s UMP party, have likened the raids on Roma camps to the round-up of Jews in Nazi-occupied France.
Others have accused Mr Sarkozy of waging a cynical campaign to distract voters from an illegal donations scandal and high unemployment that have dogged his government and pushed his personal ratings near record lows.
Romanian foreign minister Teodor Baconschi told French radio that he was worried France’s campaign could spark “xenophobic reactions”. The European Commission has said it is scrutinising the situation to ensure France does not violate bloc rules.
The French government says it has a right to counter the influx of Roma, many of whom beg on street corners and live in camps under atrocious conditions. Many experts question the effectiveness of the French plan, arguing it is a waste of resources as nothing will prevent those who have received cash from returning.