Roma evictions: more than 2,000 removed from camps this summer
In terms of figures, if not official rhetoric, the current government’s track record for dismantling Roma camps in France already matches that of the previous administration. According to headcounts collected by Mediapart, more than two thousand people were evicted in July and August 2012. A number of them were put on two charter flights back to Romania. Despite that, as Carine Fouteau reports, some activists insist the current situation cannot be compared to the Sarkozy era.
CloseClose to 200 people evicted from a camp in Saint-Priest, in the Rhône département in east central France, on August 28th; roughly 80 the night before in the Paris suburb of Évry; nine families the night before that in central Lyon: despite an inter-ministerial meeting held on August 22nd to figure out how to handle the illegal camps, the evictions of Roma gypsies continue apace – without, so far, any alternative in the form of viable rehousing solutions. They have gone on all summer, peaking between late July and early August.
