20.06.2014 Biggest Rroma camp in Marseille was evicted

Various French newspapers report on the eviction of the largest Rroma camp in Marseilles. The illegal settlement was founded in response to the eviction of a camp in Capelette, in October 2013, and was home to around 400 people, including one hundred children. Most of them are now homeless, as the inter-ministerial circular which requires an early social diagnosis as well as the organisation of alternative accommodation, was very badly applied. Only eighteen families were accommodated in a different location. Once again, children, many of whom went to school, are particularly affected. Their further education is in doubt because of the eviction, and the long-term integration of the families is additionally complicated. Some of the residents have been moving from one camp to the next since ten years. During summer, the number of closures of Rroma settlements massively increases in France. In winter, many communities have a moratorium in evictions on humanitarian grounds. Most of the residents will move to other informal settlements, resulting merely in a shift of the problem from one place to the next. Papin (2014) comments: “Hundreds of people, consisting of members of organisations, members of the Front de Gauche and citizens, were present this morning. All request that long-term solutions have to be found. Otherwise, the problem is merely displaced. In a few days, one will discover that families have created another camp at a different location. Without a permanent solution to accommodation, the story of the evacuation of the Rroma camps will remain an eternal problem.” The next clearance of another camp is already announced. The fact that Rroma are repeatedly accused of voluntarily wanting to live in the camps is absurd and shows the lack of any understanding of social inequality (compare Civallero 2014, Fiorito 2014, Gruel 2014, L’express 2014, Libération 2014, Miguet 2014).