Archiv der Kategorie 'Frankreich'

Roma under fire in French election campaign

30. Januar 2012
Geschlossen

Another 100 hundred days and the French presidential campaign will come to a head. Never far away from the political disputes among the top contenders is immigration. And the Roma, along with irregular migrants, are once again centre stage.

On Tuesday (10 January), France’s interior minister Claude Gueant boasted to reporters France had surpassed its deportation quota for 2010 by 4,000.
Around 32,000 people were forced to leave last year. Among them were a couple thousand Roma, rounded up and shipped primarily to Romania and Bulgaria.
The Roma round-up drew fire from the United Nations and EU justice and fundamental rights commissioner Viviane Reding – „Discrimination on the basis of ethnic origin or race has no place in Europe,“ she said at the time.

France, however, is quietly continuing its deportation policy of the disenfranchised EU citizens.
President Sarkozy’s hard-line against one of Europe’s most maltreated minorities appeals to the sensibilities of the country’s far right voters.
Socialist contender Francois Hollande’s poll lead in the presidential elections has dropped from around 35 percent in December to 27 percent, just four points ahead of Sarkozy. Always a menace, Marine Le Pen, the far-right candidate is at a steady 17 percent.

Along with Gueant, Sarkozy decided last year to ban begging throughout the more affluent Parisian neighbourhoods. The ban was supposed to end this January. It has since been extended to the summer, reports The Guardian newspaper.
Paris‘ socialist mayor, Bertrand Delanoe, called the ban a PR stunt designed to stigmatise a part of the population.
Sarkozy has also promised to stamp out illegal Roma camps and deport them. He also drew a direct correlation between crime and immigration.
Most of France’s 15,000 Roma eek out desperate lives in the Paris and Marseille outskirts. At the Paris North Station, Romanian police officers stroll the tarmacs alongside their French counter-parts. In Marseille, some entire Roma families live on the streets. Elsewhere, Roma camps are being bulldozed with no alternative shelter given.

Many are turned away from homeless shelters and denied access to basic medical attention, according to Medecins Sans Frontieres.
„The situation of the Roma in Marseille is desperate,“ Jean Francois Corty, the director of the NGO’s French mission told this website, adding that the French government is prioritising security over public health.
France, along with all other EU states, has agreed to set up an EU framework designed to facilitate Roma access to education, employment, health care, housing and basic related services.
„There is a real violence against the Roma in France,“ continued Corty.
„The political class do not consider the impact of their actions on the public health. The access to public health care is severely restricted not only to the Roma but also to immigrants without papers. It has made their lives unbearable.“

Quelle: EU Observer
Stand: 13.01.2012

No Place for Roma: French and Italian Authorities Aggressively Evict Roma

13. September 2011
Geschlossen

Budapest, Marseille, Rome, 11 August 2011:

The Sarkozy Government’s infamous campaign to evict and deport Roma from France, which rose to prominence one year ago, is continuing aggressively. In Marseille, between June and August 2011 alone, a minimum of 500 Roma have been evicted from camps. A large-scale eviction of around 150 people happened just this morning. In a similar vein, Roma in Italy are constantly victimised by ongoing and repeated evictions. The ERRC and its partner organisations sent letters to French and Italian authorities expressing concern about the continuing forced evictions of Romani communities in Rome and Marseille.

According to Medecins du Monde, between June and August 2011 alone a minimum of 500 Roma have been evicted from camps in Marseille. Some of them were subjected to violence from private actors that was not investigated or punished, and others were subjected to police abuse. Roma were made homeless and then scattered around Marseille, becoming yet more vulnerable to violent attacks and police harassment. The ERRC also documented several alarming incidents of police violence which have not been properly investigated or punished. French authorities are violating a number of their obligations under international law, including the right to adequate housing and protection from forced eviction, the right to private and family life and freedom from inhuman and/or degrading treatment and discrimination. (mehr…)

„Diese Leute sollen woanders hingehen“

13. September 2011
Geschlossen

Marseille will Roma loswerden. Gegend um Lagerplatz ist zum Problemviertel geworden.
Vor einem Jahr hielt Präsident Sarkozy seine Brandrede gegen Dealer, Immigranten und Roma
Heute versucht er, den Rechten mit seiner Symbolpolitik weniger in die Hände zu spielen

In Marseille sorgt ein Roma-Lager für politischen Zündstoff. Die Stadt hat einen Erlass verabschiedet, um mehr als 90 Roma auszuweisen, die seit Wochen auf einer Grünfläche vor der Porte d‘Aix kampieren. Der Triumpfbogen ist eines der Wahrzeichen von Marseille und markiert den Ortseingang, wenn man sich von Aix en Provence nähert. Auf der Fläche hatten sich im Juli dieses Jahres Dutzende Roma niedergelassen, die zuvor aus anderen Lagerstätten vertrieben worden waren. Sie hausten unter Bedingungen, die extrem „unwürdig, prekär, unsicher und unhygienisch“ seien, findet der konservative Bürgermeister Marseilles, Jean-Claude Gaudin. Da die Besetzung der städtischen Fläche geeignet sei, „die öffentliche Ordnung schwer zu beeinträchtigen“, und die Lage sich täglich verschlechtere, ordne die Stadt die unverzügliche Räumung der Grünflächen und anderer öffentlicher Flächen an der Porte d‘Aix an, erklärte Gaudin. „Von diesen Leuten da gibt es in dieser Stadt zu viele, wir wünschen, dass sie woanders hingehen.“ (mehr…)