The French government has announced plans to deport 700 Roma gypsies as Romania warns about the possibility of a xenophobic backlash.
“I am worried about the risks of populism and xenophobic reactions in a context of economic crisis,” Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Baconschi said in an interview with Radio France International on Wednesday.
The court in the southern city of Bordeaux also dismissed a request filed by about 140 Roma families asking for a place to station their caravans.
Bordeaux Deputy Mayor Hugues Martin said he was satisfied with the court’s decision but wanted to “move towards appeasement,” AFP reported.
France plans to fly 132 Roma to western Romania on Friday and another 160 to Bucharest on August 26, Romanian state secretary Valentin Mocanu told AFP.
Each deportee will be given US $385 for adults and US $129 for minors.
Around 10,000 Roma from Bulgaria and Romania used the “voluntary return” procedure to go back to their native countries, but the upcoming deportation procedure is the first in Nicolas Sarkozy’s presidential term.
EU representatives said on Wednesday that France must obey immigration laws which allow freedom of movement within the European bloc.
The majority of Roma who were expelled to Romania one year ago returned afterwards as European Union citizens at liberty to travel within the EU.
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Firstly, It is not wise to link the gypsies to India..They have nothing left in common: culture, religion, traditions, food habits…They are a European problem which the Europeans must learn to deal with. Regardless of wherever they came from, that Europe was not able to accommodate, dark skinned people into their society for nearly a 1000 years, speaks volumes of how multicultural the European society is and how much it is ready to assimilate other races. In case, they still think its a wise idea to send them back to South Asia..then how about going by Charles Darwin’s theory of origins and evolution of the Europeans and sending the Europeans back to Africa?
Cheers!!
I don’t understand. A long time ago after 1848-56 european revolutions gypsies were freed from slavery all across Europe. But westerners still behaved extremely badly to this particular ethnic group, the gypsies. As a result they moved east to countries like Hungary, Romania, Ukraine, Serbia and Russia where people were a little more lenient towards them. Not too long ago the governments of eastern European countries were continuously criticized for their “discrimination” against gypsies. But gypsies were gypsies; no matter how much govts tried, gypsies refused to work, instead they chose to steal, beg and live in deplorable conditions. Todays, times changed a lot for others and not so much for the gypsies. With the accession to the EU of eastern european countries citizens could travel and even move to various european countries, Gypsies did jusst that; a lot of them migrated to various western countries. But they chose topursue their old habits of stealing, begging and engaging in violent behaviour instead of working. Now the same westerners who criticized eastern european govts for not doing much to integrate the gypsies are turning away from the advice that they used to give to others and decide that gypsies are to be sent back east. Allow me to comment; a long time ago you westerners pushed them east, now you can take them bach and show us all how to integrate them. Italy, France, England and Germany is full of non whites anyway. A few more gypsies is just another drop in the bucket. TAKE YOUR SLAVES BACK OR SEND THEM BACK TO INDIA!
I think Mr Chirac could have mustered a little bit more effort in Defene of France.
As it was he had the dubious distinction of being followed by a Goblin.