The organization
La voix des Rroms denounces French policy towards « Roma » as a
systemic racist exclusion from society of a group of people. This policy has been strongly criticized on September 11,
2015 by UN High Commisionner for Human
Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein, as being « punitive and destructive »[1].
This policy
has a very damaging impact on the life of thousands of children, men and women,
European migrants living in squats or slums and for this reason, presumed and
publicly designated as « Roma ».
Since nearly 25 years, and Berlin’s wall fall, a whole generation of
children and youngsters has now been destroyed and sacrified on French
territory.
This policy
leads, slowly but surely, to the destruction of
a whole human group in Europe. Change has to come ! It has to come
now !
Nothing has
changed since François Hollande replaced former President of French Republic
Nicolas Sarkozy. After Viviane Reding warned again, in 2012, the newly elected governement
on its « Roma » policy, this same government adopted a regulation: « Circular
on anticipation and accompaniment of the evictions of illegal
camps ». This document remains
untill now the only governmental referred to as «National Roma Integration» ;
it is basically a methodoly for evictions. Moreover, La voix des Rroms considers
this very document to be racist in itself. Although indirectly, - the document
does not use the word “Roma”, - the
circular associates “Roma” with “camps”, following the century-old stereotype
of “vagabond gypsies” and, more importantly, with “illegal”.
The guiding
principle of this circular was confirmed one year later by the then Minister of
Interior Manuel Valls, who declared to media : « this people
has a way of life too different from ours, and they’re obviously in
confrontation ». La voix des Rroms, sued current prime minister for
hate speach. M. Valls benefits from an instituional mechanism that protects any
member of the government from justice. Mainstream media remained silent on that
case except high level sociologist and Professor Eric Fassin[2] and Mr. Edwy Plenel,
director of the mot important independant French media, Mediapart, who
said in an interview : « the danger is not Marine Le Pen, it is
Manuel Valls »[3]
This
statetment expresses the letter and the spirit of French public policy towards
East-European migrants presumed to be « Roma » and living in slum or
squats. It consists of systemic evictions of the people from their habitat and
the continuous and systematic destruction of any effort made by them, alone or
together with NGOs, toward social inclusion.
On last
August 27, both local and national managing authorities evicted the Samaritan
Slum in La Courneuve near Paris, although since more than a year a coalition of
over 30 Organizations among whom « La Fondation Abbé Pierre »,
« Médecins du monde », “La voix des rroms”, architects and researchers
had been proposing an ambitious project of inclusion and advocated for an
alternative policy. The institutional answer to this innovative approach and
project was police brutality and infringement of government’s methodology itself
(of the circular on evictions).
When one of
the supporters of the alternative project, a bishop, asked, in a private
interview, M. Cazeneuve, current minister of interior, the reason of this
behavior, he answers « slums are matter of mafia ».
Same answer
was recently given by the President of
the Republic to a letter that a supporter of La voix des Rroms sent to him asking to avoid
the eviction of the Samaritan Slum.
La voix des
Rroms belies such accusations and highligts the danger that represents the
criminalisation, at the highest level of French State, of a specific group of
poor people supposed to be « Roma ».
The report released by the National Collective for Human Rights Romeurope
on 23 September 2015 points out that more than 13 000 people were evicted
in 2014 from 138 slums or squats. 1000 were forced to live their place of life
because of fire or flooding. Their number has increased since 2013 and it
continues to increase. In 2015 as an average, 150 people are evicted from their
home in slums or squats each week.
In 2014,
the same report estimates that between 30 and 40 millions euros were spent by
managing authorithies in order to execute the 138 forced evictions. This is 10
times higher than the allocated budget of the Dihal (national contact point)
for the inclusion of the inhabitants of “illegal camps”.
Following
the « human side » of the « circular on evictions » a
social organism called Adoma was entrusted by the government the mission to
accompany the evictions. Following their own report, 63 families were
accompanied and rehoused since the mission began, among whose 16 in region
Île-de-France. This is less than 2% of the whole people concerned. Thus, 98 % of the children, women and men are
the object of what UN High Commissionner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad
Al-Hussein, named french « punitive
and destructive » policy towards « Roma ».
[1] http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=51851#.VhKR4LTtmko
[2]
http://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2013/09/25/roms-la-vocation-de-manuel-valls_3484429_3232.html
[3]
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x16vmvl_edwy-plenel-le-danger-ce-n-est-pas-madame-le-pen-mais-manuel-valls_news
