French Romani repatriation

In 2009, France deported 10,000 Romani back to Romania and Bulgaria. The next year, at least another 8,300 Romani were deported up until August. In July 2010, the Government of France initiated a program to repatriate thousands of Romanian and Bulgarian Romani, as part of a crackdown on allegedly illegal camps in the country. Since July 2010, at least 51 Romani camps have been demolished, and France has repatriated at least 1,230 Romani to their countries of origin.

On 12 April 2011 a chartered flight carrying 160 Romani left northern France for Timisoara, Romania. As in the 2010 deportations, the French government gave those Romani leaving France €300 each, with €100 for each child. The Romani on the 12 April flight had each signed declarations that they would never return to France. On 9 August 2011, the city of Marseille in southern France forcibly evicted 100 Romani people from their makeshift camp near Porte d'Aix, giving them 24 hours to leave. A chartered flight carrying approximately 150 Romani to Romania left the Lyon area on 20 September. France’s goal for 2011 was to deport 30,000 Romani to their home country. As of 2012, France sent about 8,000 Romani back to Romania and Bulgaria in 2011, after dismantling illegal camps where they were living on the outskirts of cities. The deportations prompted controversy and calls for greater inclusion of Romani people.

Although Bulgarian and Romanian citizens have the right to enter France without a visa because their countries of origin are in the European Union, under French immigration rules, they must have work or residency permits if they wish to stay longer than three months. The deportations have proved controversial in the European Union, with EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding stating in a September briefing that the European Commission may take legal action against the French government over the forced expulsions, calling them "a disgrace". The subsequent row over the comments was widely reported to have overshadowed an EU summit in September 2010.

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