26.07.2014 Rroma settlements along the Tour-de-France evicted

Various French daily newspapers report on the eviction of informal Rroma settlements along the route of the Tour-de-France. In the opinion critical observers, the closing of the settlements in Bondoufle (Essonne), each housing up to 50 people, is undoubtedly due to the media presentation of the Tour-de-France and the city. These are supposed to appear clean and tidy to the viewers from all over the world. However, the camps were evacuated under the pretext of security flaws and lack of cleanliness, whereby the Tour de France was said to be in danger. The affected Rroma families are now homeless, as no alternative accommodation were offered. The Rroma and the aid organisations are particularly upset because the mayor had insured in January of this year, that the settlements would not be evicted if they were well maintained, would not grow bigger and if the inhabitants actively collaborated with the social services. However, the mayor of Bondoufle, Jean Heart, denied this towards AFP. His statement was supposedly only valid for a single Rroma family. It has to be emphasized that the evacuation of the informal settlements complicates a long-term integration of the Rroma immigrants significantly. With the forced evictions, the problems and the question of integration are simply moved from one location to the next, but not solved. Furthermore, the media focus on informal settlements suggests that there are only lower class Rroma who are poorly educated. According to estimates of the Rroma Foundation, there are 100,000 to 500,000 Rroma living integrated and unobtrusively in French society (Rroma Foundation 2014). They are totally ignored by the French media, the public and politics (compare 20 minutes 2014, Lesacq 2014, Le Parisien 2014, Le Nouvel Observateur 2014, Lemonnier 2014).