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An elderly Gypsy woman looks back while being followed by journalists shortly after arriving from Lyon at the Baneasa international airport, Bucharest, Romania, 19 August 2010. Photo by EPA/BGNES
France has violated European Union legislation by deporting hundreds of Roma migrants from Romania and Bulgaria, the Socialist bloc of the European parliament said on Thursday.
The Socialists, who form the second largest group in the parliament, called on the European Commission and the European Council to condemn the French government's crackdown and issue a declaration to this effect at the legislature's next session in Strasbourg, which begins September 6.
"The recent treatment of Roma people in France was appalling and cannot go unchallenged," Martin Schulz, head of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, said in a statement.
"Their rights have been abused for populist, electoral reasons by a government that is fast losing support," Schulz said.
According to the Socialists France has breached EU law on the free movement of EU citizens.
"Scenes like those we have recently witnessed in France must never be repeated," Schulz said, urging the commission to implement an action plan to promote the inclusion of Roma in society.
France has faced international criticism since it began dismantling Roma camps and sending ethnic Roma back to Bulgaria and Romania, saying they lived illegally in France.
The second group of 13 Bulgarian Roma deported from France landed at Sofia airport Wednesday evening.
The first group of 13 arrived last Friday, and some media reported they have been ethnic Turks not Roma, but these reports remain unconfirmed. A total of 41 are expected to come back.
A total of 850 Roma persons will have to leave France by the end of August.
Meanwhile, the French government made it clear it is reluctant to style its actions as "deportation", saying that Roma people are leaving the country by mutual agreement and for a compensation (EUR 300 per adult, EUR 100 per child), and also retain the right to return whenever they might wish.
Roma from Romania and Bulgaria are allowed free passage into France if they are European Union citizens. After that, however, they must find work, start studies, or find some other way of becoming established in France or risk deportation.
The French government said those Roma being deported this week have overstayed the three-month limit.
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