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ORIGINAL SENDER: AVER
The situation of Rroms in France still remains very difficult and unclear.
The new French government, which expressed first its openess toward NGO-s
...
ORIGINAL SENDER: AVER
The situation of Rroms in France still remains very difficult and unclear.
The new French government, which expressed first its openess toward NGO-s
working on Rroma problems, in order to establish a well-founded policy,
based on a deep reflection in co-operation with these NGO-s, shows now the
contrary with its actions:
On 5th of September 2002, the advisor of French Prime Minister asked to
NGO-s he received in a meeting to establish presentation of different
situations in which Rroma are, for eventually provide some of them with a
regular status in France, and transferred the file to the Ministry of
Interior and Ministry of Social Affairs for trating the question of
regularisation of a part of Romanian Rroms and the question of access to the
fundamental rights. In this respect, a second presentation has been asked on
different situations of Rromani children's education in France, too much
often refused by schools and local authorities, even if this is an absolute
Human Right. This first contact with central French authorities gave some
hopes to the NGO-s who work with Rroms, but no illusions.
Actually, the second meeting, with the legal adviser of French Minister of
Interior did not result any good achievement. To the statement that French
police is harassing the Rroms with its daily controls, even 3 or 3 times per
day, the adviser answered that Rroms are in an illegal situation in France,
which is not true, since many of them are waiting for the verdicts on their
asylum demands. Nevertheless, the adviser replied that their demands will be
rejected, an assertion contrary to the French constitution and International
rules, since a demand of asylum can only be tested by competent bodies, and
as far as no verdict has been given from this competent body, no valid
declaration can be made on this demand.
In this context, combined with the intensive bilateral accords France -
Romania, the French police is more and more present on the camps in which
Rroma survive, 2 to 3 times a day there are controls of identity, or other
papers (notably "carte grise", a paper which testify the ownership over a
car).
Two months ago, in a train station in Paris, an old Rromani lady has been
asked her identity papers, then taken in a car by policemen and abandonned
near to a forest. Her papers have been confisqued and the intervention of a
lawyer and the identification of the policeman who took them did not
succeed. The chief of the police station answered that the papers were lost.
On the 2nd of October, a 36 years old Rromani woman has been arrested during
a identity control in the camp of Choisy - le - Roi where she lived and
expelled in Romania. She asked to the police to take with her her children,
two girls 7 and 2 years old, even though the older is attending the school
in France. The police did not allow her to take her children. This is an
aberration, because dwo days later, on 4th of October, ministers of the two
countries met in Paris for making an accord on isolated minors issue, aimed
to support their volountary return and integration in Romania!!!
Two campments of Rroms in the town Choisy - le - Roi have been evacuated
some days ago, and still remains one. The mayor of this town and some of the
inhabitants complain because of the presence of these dirty campements,
without taking into account the reasons which push Rroms to leave their
countries and to live in such conditions in France.
On the 3rd of October, Mr. Nicolas Sarkozy, French Minister of Interior,
visited this town, after having declared that he understand the embarrass
resulted for inhabitants by the presence of these campements. Rromani and
French activists working with Rroms came for speaking with the minister, but
he only visited the evacuated campements, covered now with big stones in
order to avoid a re-installation of Rroms. Once again, we were disapointed:
the minister visited these evacuated campements, example of his policy's
achievement, and a group of inhabitants was demonstrating for expressing its
gratefulness to such a policy.
Some of Rroms who were evacuated from these campements went in Switzerland,
where they asked asylum, but their demands are rejected and they are being
expelled in Romania. The events are affecting the relations between France
and Switzerland, but there is not yet a deep analysis of the situation,
which could lead to its improvement.
It is becoming more and more obvious that the question of Rroms' illegal
migration is an european one, its solution requires an efficient european
policy, implemented in the very local level and accompanied by a real
monitoring and evalutaion, based on a cross-checking logic, with the wider
Rromani participation possible. Preventing illegal migration means
eradicating its causes: the racism, the corruption, the exclusion of Rroms
from the economic, political and educational system etc ...
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