By IB Times Staff Reporter: Subscribe to IB's RSS feed
September 1, 2010 12:05 PM EDT
A French court blocked the deportation of seven Roma people, giving a little respite to the much criticized plan of President Sarkozy to remove "illegal camps" from the country.
An administrative tribunal in the town of Lille, in northern France, canceled deportation orders on Tuesday, stating that the cases did not meet the legal standard of a real and immediate threat, according to a statement.
President Nicolas Sarkozy ordered French authorities to remove all illegal immigrant camps after traveling workers created a riot following the death of a worker during an identity check. He blames the Roma, many of whom are illegal immigrants in France. Many of the Roma, who are a subclass of the Romani people, live in socially and economically backward conditions.
In August 2010, French authorities dismantled about 128 camps and deported over 900 people to Romania and Bulgaria, trigging mass protests from human rights organizations and the French opposition.
Many Roma, also known as gypsies, choose not to declare their ethnicity during census, hence often lack access to social service facilities. They are also often the scapegoats for many of Europe's problems. Many live in squatter communities with high unemployment and crime rates.
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French Prime Minister Francois Fillion said that the deportation policy is in line with French and European law and is not discriminatory towards Roma and said they were not targeting the gypsies particularly as a group.
Two years ago, Italy cited similar reasons to France and the Roma in Italy became target to police and civilian hostility and the camps were put under constant supervision of the police.
However, the European Union said it had not received a letter from the French authorities regarding the deportation of Roma.
The French government has drawn flak from several people in the French government, as well as the United Nations and human rights organizations. The drive is considered to be illegal and racist, according to several human rights organizations fighting for the Roma.
However, in a press conference at Brussels, Pierre Lellouche, French Secretary for European Affairs, defended France stating that the Romanian government spends only about 0.4 percent of the $5 billion it gets annually from the European Union to integrate its Roma minority,
Roma constitute about 2.5 percent of total population in Romania, according to the 2002 census. Roma population is also found in Russia, Bulgaria, Greece and Poland among other European nations.
Under the European Union Treaty, each country has the duty to take care of its own citizens, Lellouche said.
However, the EU Treaty also states that EU will "combat discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation".
EU Commissioner for Justice Viviane Reding said she will investigate whether the deportation policy violates EU's basic values.
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