French Immigration Minister, Eric Besson, launched Tuesday strong criticism towards a local gendarme unit that stamped Bulgarian and Romanian Roma.

The incident happened on August 28 at the Roma camps in d'Ormoy and Villabé in Esonne. Over hundreds of Roma were stamped to facilitate identification control so that the police did not have to check the same person twice. According to an order of local authorities, the Roma had a month to vacate the illegal camp.

"This is the best method, the most simple and efficient one. It cannot be compared to the numbers given to the Jews during World War II; we are not talking here about a life-long mark, this is just a stamp that can be washed with water," this is how a gendermery employee defended the authorities' actions.

The French Immigration Minister however, voiced in public his indignation over the incident and banned the use of such methods.

One of the Roma is quoted as saying: "We are not animals."

The member of the Association "Solidarity with Roma Families," Yves Bouyer, stated that the actions of the gendarmes reminded him of World War II and this was not the way to treat any human being.

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