The controversy over France’s deportation of Roma (gypsies) who are Romanian nationals continued unabated this week, as Sarkozy prepares to host what some are calling an
“anti-gypsy summit” in Paris next week between 5 of the EU’s biggest powers. France’s deportations are not only drawing fire from human rights groups – they are also coming very close to violating EU law, since Romanian nationals are now EU citizens and, in theory, have the right to live anywhere in the EU. The deportations are calling into question what the limits of “free movement” really are. And there are signs that some rightist politicians in Europe may be looking for an opening to make those EU guarantees of free movement more restrictive.
France’s Roma deportations are actually nothing new. France has been closing down illegal Roma camps and sending their inhabitants home for years - and if those inhabitants’ homes happened to be in another country, that’s where they were sent. Last year 10,000 Roma were sent back to Romania and Bulgaria. These Roma have been paid to leave, and the government has always said they were being sent home voluntarily (although they were involuntarily removed from their illegal camps).
