Paris dismantles major Gypsy camp; families abandon homes ahead of police

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Paris dismantles major Gypsy camp; families abandon homes ahead of police

By Associated Press, Updated: Wednesday, August 8, 2:07 PM

PARIS — French authorities are dismantling a major Gypsy camp in Paris, after warning nearly 100 people living there that their ramshackle homes would be cleared.

The residents of the encampment vanished the night before the police action Wednesday, despite offers of more permanent housing nearby.

Frederic Rose, of the Paris police department, said French social workers went to the camp ahead of the officers’ arrival to tell them the settlement on public property was illegal and would be removed. Rose said it was the largest of several camps of Gypsies, or Roma, in Paris.

France, under then-President Nicolas Sarkozy, came under heated European Union criticism in 2010 for expelling more than 1,000 illegal Roma immigrants, a move seen as targeting an ethnic group. Action against Roma is now a sensitive issue.


Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/paris-dismantles-major-gypsy-camp-families-abandon-homes-ahead-of-police/2012/08/08/48c291a8-e18c-11e1-89f7-76e23a982d06_story.html

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Short article, no more at link.

[geardaddy]

1. Gypsy is a derogatory term

They should say Roma.

[otherone]

2. poor travelers

[rickford66]

3. They do squat in a lotof places

I've been to Paris several times for business. The Roma take over public and private spaces. Their temporary camps can get quite complex. One place I saw had planted gardens. I remember one large group was squatting on the median of a highway for some time before the police towed their trailers away. I guess enough of them are involved in criminal activites to paint them all as bad and unwanted.

[dipsydoodle]

4. New French government moves against Roma camps

French police have been dismantling illegal Roma (Gypsy) camps after the new Socialist government promised action on public health grounds.

Two camps near Lille were closed on Thursday morning, following similar moves in Paris and the Lyon area.

About 240 east European Roma were put on a flight to Bucharest after agreeing to return to Romania voluntarily.

Critics say the Socialists are copying the mass clearances under conservative ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19194639