{"id":1327,"date":"2014-05-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-05-01T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/%20rroma.org\/02-05-2014-eviction-policy-continues-in-france\/"},"modified":"2022-08-04T11:48:23","modified_gmt":"2022-08-04T10:48:23","slug":"02-05-2014-eviction-policy-continues-in-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/de\/02-05-2014-eviction-policy-continues-in-france\/","title":{"rendered":"02.05.2014 Eviction policy continues in France"},"content":{"rendered":"

Several French \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tnewspapers report about the ongoing evictions of illegal settlements. In B\u00e8gles, a suburb of Bordeaux, a community of about sixty Rroma \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\twere evicted from a former industrial area. The eviction was carried out at the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\trequest of the landowner, the real estate company Aquitanis<\/em>, which will build houses on the abandoned land. The displaced \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRroma were offered temporary accommodation, but most of them rejected it. The \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\teviction endangers the school enrolment of about a dozen children, whose \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tfurther school career is called into question. A representative of the organization \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u2018Right to Accommodation\u2019 (Droit au Logement) justifiably criticized that the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tevictions will only solve local problems, but nothing would change for the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tconcerned people in the long term. In Grasse, a house occupied by immigrant \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRroma was cleared by the police, and several inhabitants had to be carried away \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tby the police (France Bleu 2014\/I, Lebaratoux \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2014, Nice-Matin 2014, Sud Ouest 2014\/I). \u00a0<\/p>\n

De Francesco (2014) \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\treports on the eviction of three Rroma-settlements in Cran-Gevrier and in \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAnnecy, in the Rh\u00f4ne-Alpes region, close to the Swiss border. The authorities \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcarried out the evacuation in response to a court order from March. About 150 people \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\thad to leave their homes. The action was once again criticized by the organization \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u2018Right to Accommodation\u2019, because it subverts and complicates the integration \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tefforts of the Rroma. The local politician Anne Coste de Champeron justified the eviction with the untenable \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tconditions in the camps. Politicians repeatedly use this reasoning to justify \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe many evictions. The fact that it is not the welfare of those affected, but \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe maintenance of order policy \u00a0that has priority, is most often concealed. For a long-term, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsuccessful integration of Rroma, tolerance and support of illegal settlements is \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdesirable (compare France Bleu 2014\/II). <\/p>\n

Le Creurer (2014) \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\treports on displaced Rroma after an eviction in Nice. The affected Rroma have \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tno intentions to return to Romania, as is the wish of the French authorities. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRather, they want a future in France. Without integration in the labour market \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tand appropriate training, this will be only difficult to achieve. The \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tefficiency of the mentioned integration programs has been hitherto fairly little \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcritically discussed in the media. The approach seems to be more promising than \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tto simply evict the Rroma from one place to the next. No\u00ebl Mam\u00e8re , the mayor \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof Begles, also wishes a long-term and collective solution for the integration \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof Rroma. However, for this purpose a collective policy of all the suburbs of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBordeaux is required (compare Sud Ouest 2014\/II).<\/p>\n

Several French \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tnewspapers moreover report on the eviction of two Rroma settlements in Saint-Denis. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe European Rroma Rights Centre had filed complaint \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tagainst the eviction at the European Court of Human Rights: \u201cThe ERRC referred to two articles of the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEuropean Convention on Human Rights (3 and 8), to appraise that the present \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\teviction is a \u201cdegrading and inhuman treatment\u201d and that it \u201cundermines the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tright to a private and family life\u201d\u201d<\/em> (Sterl\u00e9 2014). The court called the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFrench authorities for information about the conditions of the evacuation, the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tfuture accommodation of the displaced persons and the dimensions of the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\texpulsions. The prefecture of Saint-Denis replied that they applied the usual \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsocial diagnoses and offered the affected alternative housing. For Manon \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFilloneau, from the European Rroma Rights Centre, the intervention of the court \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tis a success, despite the lack of consequences. It shows the interest of the court \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tfor the situation of the Rroma in France (see Breson 2014, Le Point, 2014, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSterl\u00e9 2014).<\/p>\n