Roma evictions and deportations from France

[Ripeberry]

The French don't mess about and they clear the camps as fast as they can.

Do you think this kind of thing will be in our UK news in a few years time?

Roma all over the countryside in makeshift camps?

What are your views? As EU citizens they have a right to live in the UK and get benefits and housing. How come France let them live in squallor?

The French are probably going to have to curb their enthusiasm for forced repatriation and start abiding by EU law instead. The travelling community in Britain has plenty of challenges and I don't think anyone beyond a few nutcase extremists would ever suggest the same tactics.

France is a bit different to here, they applied special rules to Romania as a "new" EU nation. Romanians can enter France freely but they need special permits to stay longer than three months. It sounds like many of the Roma they evicted didn't have those permits so there were in France illegally. That illegal presence also explains why there weren't getting benefits or housing.

So it couldn't happen here. We didn't apply any special rules to the "new" Eastern European EU members so they're free to come and live here. We therefore would have no legal basis to kick them out, and being as they would be here legally there wouldn't be the need for makeshift camps and trying to hide from the system.

It's also worth noting that even with it's special rules about Eastern Europeans France seems to have broken a number of treaties with what they've been doing. So they may not get away with it and it's not over yet.

They are building slums, I can see why no place would want that suddenly appearing on the doorstep. It is unacceptable that anyone could build such a place and not expect to be condemned for it. I don't know how anyone would or could defend it but I am sure there will be plenty of hand-wringers worried that if they don't stand on the side of the Roma they'll be seen as racist. Heaven forbid.

It makes a mockery of all the hard-working decent immigrants who grab opportunities with both hands and don't believe that because they have little or no money that they should live in shanty towns. If you can get the money to get from point a to point b then get the money to rent somewhere.

They're not really a part of the 'grab opportunities' world, though. They live precariously in Romania and elsewhere in the former Eastern Block, and face discrimination and hardship there, and I hope the EU will address the push factors that go into the decision to leave Romania in droves, as well as making France stop this disgraceful action. The Roma are second class citizens in most countries they live in. The shanties they set up in France were the same sort of accommodation they live in in Romania.

What's being made a mockery of here is Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, and the concept of the EU itself. There is no way France should be allowed to discriminate among EU member states and their citizens where immigration goes.

I read that the Belgians dealt with this by sending officials to Romania and pointing put that there were no free handouts, Roma who had come to Belgium also went back and explained that it was very hard here to get a job or housing without being fluent in Flemish or French. It seemed to work.

"There is no way France should be allowed to discriminate among EU member states and their citizens where immigration goes."

Well they are, and it's legal and all above board. They're not the only state that put special restrictions on the "new" Eastern European EU States.

That's not to say that I support what's happened, but legally they can have different immigration rules for Romanians.

Agree Mathanxiety and also only a few years ago they could apply for asylum. Then overnight those countries got eu membership and then suddenly roma are not in any political danger as they are from a EU countries (and we have no problems at all do we?) and are not wanted by the countries that previously gave them them a home.

Makes a mockery of the EU. But that's unsurprising.

It makes you look so nice and democratic and freedom-loving to offer poor victims of Communist oppression the occasional asylum visa though.