Romeurope 2007 - 2008 Report

The Collectif national Droits de l’Homme Romeurope (CNDH Romeurope, National Human right group) was set up in October 2000 in Paris, with the aim of improving access to basic rights among Roma migrants on French territory, and of fighting the discrimination and human rights violations they suffer in France. By Roma migrants in France, we mean people living on French national territory, mainly from the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), who define themselves as Roma. There are an estimated total of around ten thousand such people spread more or less uniformly across the whole country. However, since the enlargement of the European Union (EU), the situation of Roma who come from an EU Member State (most commonly from Romania, then from Bulgaria) should be distinguished from that of Roma from outside the EU. In most of the countries involved in this emigration, it is not an exaggeration to say that the Roma are victims of segregation. They also suffer serious rejection in France, which occurs itself from time to time. For instance they were turned away from social restaurants in Lyon in September 2007, and they have been directly targeted by the adoption of anti-begging orders in several municipalities, victims of rumours and aggression in Marseille since June 2008, harassed by the police at their homes and evicted from one place to another. Information gathered by associations and support committees that are members of Romeurope, and that interact daily with Roma families, bears witness to all the violations of their rights, including of those who acquired European citizenship in January 2007.