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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Sweep in France sends Gypsies to Romania

Julien Proult Associated Press

PARIS – France expelled nearly 100 Gypsies, or Roma, to their native Romania on Thursday as part of a very public effort by conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy to dismantle Roma camps and sweep them out of the country, the Immigration Ministry said.

France chartered a flight to Bucharest, which left from the southeastern city of Lyon with 79 Roma aboard, Immigration Ministry officials said. However, Romanian border police official Cristian Ene, at Bucharest’s Aurel Vlaicu airport, said only 61 people were aboard. The French Immigration Ministry was unable to immediately explain the discrepancy.

Fourteen other people were repatriated to Romania aboard a commercial flight from the Paris region earlier in the day, the French officials said, adding that another Romania-bound repatriation flight was expected today.

Those repatriated Thursday left “on a voluntary basis” and were given $386 for each adult 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 have 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,” Le Cleve said in an interview. “There are some Roma people who have been sent back seven or eight times, each time receiving the famous euro300.”

Adrian Paraipan, a 37-year-old aboard the Lyon flight along with his wife and three children, said he planned to return to France.

“In two weeks, I will leave again,” he said, adding that his family was unable to make a living in Romania.

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 they are unable to prove they can support themselves while in France, Le Cleve said.

Foreign-born Gypsies are often seen begging on the streets of France’s cities, often with small children or puppies, and many French people consider them a nuisance, or worse.

Sarkozy has linked Roma to crime, calling their camps sources of trafficking, exploitation of children and prostitution. On July 28, he pledged that illegal Gypsy camps would be “systematically evacuated.” Some 50 camps have been emptied since then, including at least two on Thursday.

The policy is attracting increasing concern, both at home and abroad, from those who fear it discriminates against one of the European Union’s most vulnerable and impoverished communities.

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.”

Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux insisted France is being careful “not to stigmatize any community,” but said the government can’t just let people occupy land illegally.