France and the Roma: Cities employ tough love

By Henri Astier BBC News, Paris

The presence in France of thousands of Roma people from Eastern Europe has been a hot national issue since 2010.

13/02/2014 - In July that year, following clashes between travellers and police in central France, conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy said the illegal camps where Roma people live were rife with "exploitation of children for begging, of prostitution and crime", and called for their destruction.

Since coming to power in 2012, the Socialists have stepped up the policy of camp clearances. France has also continued to deport thousands of foreign camp-dwellers every year, mainly to Romania. But the Roma issue was exercising local politicians long before it broke through at national level.

The exact number of Roma people living in the country is unknown as the French government does not keep ethnic statistics - the best guess is 15,000-20,000. But what is clear is that the number has changed little since the late 1990s. For the past decade and a half, local officials have wrestled with the question of what to do with the illegal camps - about 400 at the latest official count - that have sprung up around the country.

As few people enjoy the sight of squalid encampments on their doorstep, reactions have typically been hostile. Last year one mayor, angered by travellers who had descended on a local farm, told a reporter that "Hitler may not have killed enough of them". But over the past decade or so, a number of French municipalities have tried a more humane approach, aiming to give Roma people a decent place to live.

In Aubervilliers, just north of Paris, 20 Roma families were moved from an illegal camp into an "insertion village" five years ago. Mayor Jacques Salvator says the scheme has been "extremely positive" - all but two families now live in normal housing.


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