French government targeting travellers

It would appear that the faux Socialist government in France are continuing with the forced eviction policy that the previous right-wing Sarkozy regime initiated.

Submitted by working class … on August 9, 2012

The French police were yesterday busy evicting over 100 travellers and dismantling their homes on a site in Paris.

Many of the residents disappeared from site the previous night, to avoid the police. Over 200 of the travellers have been put ‘voluntarily’ on flights to Bucharest. A Roma rights campaigner said that they ‘voluntary’ returns are just “expulsions in disguise”.

Frederic Rose, of the Paris police department, said that:

"French social workers went to the camp ahead of the officers' arrival to tell them the settlement on public property was illegal and would be removed."

The French Interior Minister, Manuel Valls, made a statement on Wednesday, saying that,

“Court orders to remove illegal camps would be executed with firmness. The camps pose a challenge to community life in working class areas where they are often set up”.

In the latest round of Socialist government ordered evictions:

• 200 Roma travellers have been evicted by the police at a camp in Hellemmes, and Villeneuve d’ascq, both in Lille.

• 160 Roma travellers have been displaced from the camp in the 19th Arrondissement of Paris.

• Three camps in Lyon have been evicted since last week, displacing more than 200 people.

The state targeting of ethnic groups is nothing new in France. The previous President, Nicolas Sarkozy expelled over 1,000 Roma immigrants in 2010.

It is estimated that there are around 20,000 Roma travellers currently residing in France, many of them in similar camps to the one currently being dismantled.

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