Romania French send Romas back home

March 19, 2008

Comment: This very short article published on the web indicates that more than 100 persons from the Roma communities have been sent back to Romania with the support of the French government. Each returnee received 300 Euro and a free seat in Paris – Timisoara charter. To encourage the migrants to settle back home, the French authorities propose also a grant to buy animals, up to 3'600 Euro.

The migrants are declaring they are back in Romania only for few weeks and ascertain they will come back to France. 'Evenimentul' confirms that, since the beginning of the year, more than one thousand Romanian Romas are back to Romania. Another four hundreds are expected in March.

Unfortunately, the article does not indicate if families including children were part of the returned migrants. The journalist indicates that the Romanians were living in temporary camps in the suburb of Paris; begging and stealing being the main sources of income. The social dimension is unfortunately rarely described in such news, where deportation or assisted return are often shown as the only solution.

In France, but also Italy, Spain, Belgium, the number of Romanian children, of Roma origin, involved into small organized crime or exploitation schemes through begging, is continuously increasing. In Spain, some trials started to involve parents and grand parents considered as traffickers of their own children.

The original article can be found at: http://www.evz.ro/articole/detalii-articol/796220/Francezii-ne-trimit-rromii-acasa/