The plight of migrant Roma squatters, harshly scapegoated and ostracized, is only getting worse in France, despite the election promises of President François Hollande to break with the strict policies of the past with a more humane approach, writes The New York Times in an editorial.
French government raids and evictions doubled last year at squatter camps, which are cobbled together out of necessity by the hard-pressed Roma, or Gypsies. Their nomadic search across Europe for economic and social opportunity worsened during the recession as local politicians stereotyped them as undeserving interlopers.
In France, nearly 20,000 Roma were evicted from camps last year and told to move on, most of them in the Paris region, according to investigators for the Human Rights League and the European Roma Rights Center. “Forced evictions continued almost everywhere,” their report said.
Some nations, including Germany, Hungary and Serbia have announced special programs to help the Roma. But, so far, nothing progressive has been seen from the government of President Hollande as it maintains a hard-line policy of evictions and repatriations to Romania and Bulgaria. Mr. Hollande’s tone was unyielding when he commented on the eviction report: “Do we have to be ashamed of what we have done? No.”
Read more of this editorial from The New York Times.