France Planning to Deport 700 Foreign Roma

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France Roma expulsions

France is planning to deport 700 foreign Roma (Gypsies) as part of a crackdown on illegal camps in the country by the end of August. It comes after clashes last month between travellers and police in the town of Saint Aignan.

The government says it will dismantle 300 illegal camps and squats

What prompted the latest government action?

In July, dozens of French Roma armed with hatchets and iron bars attacked a police station, hacked down trees and burned cars in the small Loire Valley town of Saint Aignan.

The riot erupted after a gendarme shot and killed a French Roma, 22-year-old Luigi Duquenet, who officials said had driven through a police checkpoint, knocking over a policeman. Media reports suggested he had been involved in a burglary earlier that day.

Duquenet's family dispute the police version of events, saying he was scared of being stopped because he did not have a valid driver's licence.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy called an emergency ministerial meeting, at which it was decided that some 300 illegal camps and squats would be dismantled within the coming three months.

A statement from the president's office said the camps were "sources of illegal trafficking, of profoundly shocking living standards, of exploitation of children for begging, of prostitution and crime".

Dozens of camps have since been shut down. Those found to be living illegally in France are now being sent home.

The move is part of a raft of new hardline security measures recently announced by the government, which has struggled with low approval ratings in the opinion polls.

Has this happened before?

In fact, France has closed down illegal Roma camps and sent their inhabitants home for years. Last year 10,000 Roma were sent back to Romania and Bulgaria, the government says.

Who are the Roma, and how many Roma are there in France?

The Roma are a nomadic people whose ancestors are thought to have left north-west India at the beginning of the 11th Century and scattered across Europe.

There are at least 400,000 Roma - or travelling people - living in France, who are part of long-established communities.

In addition, there are about 12,000 Roma from Bulgaria and Romania, many of whom live in unauthorised camps in urban areas across the country, according the French Roma rights umbrella group FNASAT.

Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU in 2007, don't their citizens have freedom of movement within the EU?

They have the right to enter France without a visa, but under special rules they must have work or residency permits if they wish to stay longer than three months.

These are hard to come by, and most Roma from the two countries are thought to be in France illegally.

What has been the reaction to the government's decision?

French Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said the new measures were "not meant to stigmatise any community, regardless of who they are, but to punish illegal behaviour".

The government says the measures are in line with European rules.

Foreign-born Roma are often seen begging on the streets of France's cities, and many French people consider them a nuisance. Opinion polls show that large numbers of French voters approve of the deportation measures.

However, there has been widespread criticism of the move.

Roma groups have widely condemned the government's actions, while the European Roma Rights Centre said Mr Sarkozy's plan "reinforces discriminatory perceptions about Roma and travellers and inflames public opinion against them". The Budapest-based group has called for a halt to the evictions and expulsions.

The FNASAT said the president was using Roma and travellers as scapegoats for the government's security problems.

The EU has said it would watch developments "closely".

Romanian President Traian Basescu said "we understand the problems created by the Roma camps outside the French cities" but insisted on the "right of every European citizen to move freely in the EU".

The UN's Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has sharply criticised France's treatment of the Roma. Members said racism and xenophobia were undergoing a "significant resurgence".

A member of Mr Sarkozy's own UMP party, Jean-Pierre Grand, a centre-right politician, compared police round-ups of the Roma in camps to the large-scale arrests, known in French as "rafles", of French Jews and Gypsies during World War II.

What will happen to the Roma who have been sent home?

Bulgarian and Romanian Roma face discrimination at home, and Roma communities in both countries have faced forced evictions.

Generally, they have a low standard of living, high unemployment and low literacy levels.

Some Roma threatened with deportation say that if they are sent home, they will simply come back.