2009 2010 REPORT On the Situation of Roma Migrants in France © David Delaporte [slogans on demonstrators' placards in photograph] Stop transitional measures The right to work for ALL Europeans Romeurope National Human Rights Collective September 2010 Collectif National Droits de l’Homme Romeurope (Romeurope National Human Rights Collective) ABCR (Association Biterroise Contre le Racisme) (The Béziers Association Against Racism) – ALPIL (Action pour l’insertion sociale par le logement) (Action for Social Integration Through Housing) – AMPIL (Action Méditerranéenne Pour l’Insertion sociale par le Logement) (Mediterranean Action for Social Integration Through Housing) – ASAV (Association pour l’accueil des voyageurs) (Association to Welcome Travellers) – ASET (Aide à la scolarisation des enfants tsiganes) (Educational Assistance for Gypsy Children) – ASEFRR(Association de Solidarité en Essonne avec Les familles roumaines et rroms) (Essonne Association for Solidarity with Romanian and Rroma Families) – Association Solidarité Roms de Saint-Etienne (Roma Solidarity Association of Saint-Etienne) – CAM (Comité d‘Aide Médicale) (Medical Assistance Committee) – CCFD (Comité Catholique contre la Faim et pour le Développement) (Catholic Committee against Hunger and for Development) – CIMADE (Comité intermouvements auprès des évacués) (Intermovement Committee for Evacuees) – CLASSES (Collectif Lyonnais pour l’Accès à la Scolarisation et le Soutien des Enfants - des Squat) (Lyonnais Collective for School Enrolment Access and Support for Children of Squatters) – FNASAT- Gens du voyage (National Federation of Associations in Solidarity with Action with Gypsies and Travellers) – Hors la Rue (Off the Streets) – Imediat – LDH (Ligue des Droits de l’Homme) (Human Rights League) – Liens Tsiganes (Gypsy Ties) – MDM (Médecins du Monde) (Doctors of the World) – MRAP (Mouvement contre le racisme et pour l’amitié entre les peuples) (Movement against Racism and for Friendship Among Peoples) – Mouvement catholique des gens du voyage (Catholic Movement of Travellers) – PARADA – PROCOM – Rencontres tsiganes (Gypsy Encounters) – RomActions – Romeurope Val-de-Marne – Secours catholique (Caritas France) – SICHEM (Service de Coopération Humanitaire pour les Etrangers et les Migrants) (Humanitarian Cooperation Service for Foreigners and Migrants) – Une famille un toit 44 (One Family, One Roof 44) – URAVIF (Union régionale des associations voyageurs d’Ile-de-France) (Regional Union of Travellers' Associations of Ile-de-France) . And the Support Committees of Montreuil, northwest Paris, St Michel-sur-Orge and Meudon, le Collectif nantais Romeurope (the Nantes Romeurope Collective), le Collectif Rroms des associations de l'agglomération lyonnaise (the Rroma Collective of Associations of Greater Lyons), le Collectif de soutien aux familles roms de Roumanie (the Collective for Support to Roma Families from Romania), le Collectif des sans papiers de Melun (the Melun Collective for those without Documentation) and le Collectif dijonnais de soutien aux Roms (the Dijon Roma Support Collective). 1 Avec le soutien de : Collectif National Droits de l’Homme Romeurope c/o FNASAT Gens du voyage – 59, rue de l‘Ourcq – 75019 PARIS – 01-40-35-00-04 / 06-35-52-85-46 www.romeurope.org Late-breaking news-July/August 2010 As Romeurope sends this report to press, very serious charges leveled against Roma people emanating from the highest levels of Government have garnered France the harsh criticism of experts from CERD (United Nations Committee to Eliminate Racial Discrimination). Statements by the President of France in the aftermath of the tragic events in Saint Aignan (Loir-et-Cher) blur distinctions between Travelers, the Roma and crime, stigmatizing these two communities and thereby providing justification for the current crackdown against them in France. These policies, which constitute de jure ethnic profiling, include an increase in expulsions from lands occupied by Roma, or, in the absence of encampment areas, by Travelers, and intensified police harassment. These policies have been regularly condemned as "disgraceful" by elected officials on both ends of the political spectrum, who point out that families are ending up in the street and being prevented from settling anywhere. Meanwhile, "Obligations to Leave France" and "humanitarian" transfers to countries of origin have increased. The ineffectiveness of these approaches as methods to combat unacceptable housing conditions and the harmful consequences for families have been demonstrated over the last three years. Those consequences are discussed at length in this report. These developments in terms of policy and attitudes are alarming, as they increase insecurity while promoting racist and xenophobic behavior, for which the Roma are now paying the price. 2 Collectif National Droits de l’Homme Romeurope c/o FNASAT Gens du voyage – 59, rue de l‘Ourcq – 75019 PARIS – 01-40-35-00-04 / 06-35-52-85-46 www.romeurope.org Thanks a lot to voluntaries from Traducteurs Sans Frontières (Translators Without Borders) who made the publication of an English version of this report possible and also to the “Qualité Traduction” (Translation quality) service from the International network Direction of Médecins du Monde (Doctors of the World). Thanks to M Peter Cummings of PLC Translation and Educational Services for the harmonization of this report. 3 Collectif National Droits de l’Homme Romeurope c/o FNASAT Gens du voyage – 59, rue de l‘Ourcq – 75019 PARIS – 01-40-35-00-04 / 06-35-52-85-46 www.romeurope.org The Demands of the Romeurope Collective Before going through its demands item by item, the Romeurope National Human Rights Collective reaffirms the principles which guide its decisions: ● Roma originating from Eastern Europe and the Balkans and staying or residing in France are in charge of their destiny and this essential right should be fully recognised. ● As European citizens, citizens of Romania and Bulgaria, asylum seekers or undocumented immigrants, as people without shelter, job seekers, or people who are sick, as children of school age, parents in an insecure situation or unaccompanied minors, they enjoy inalienable rights and freedoms that are to be respected as they would be for any other individual in France. ● There are no specific "Roma" problems which would deserve demeaning provisions or special measures, the common law should remain the rule. Those who manage to find employment, obtain housing, and get their children in to school melt into the background like other migrants. ● The specifics of the situation are those created by representatives of the State when they describe them as intrinsically mafiosi and delinquent, when they target the slums where Roma families live so as to issue huge quantities of OQTF1, resurrecting the little-used provision of insufficient resources as the reason for the illegality of stay, when they create measures for humanitarian repatriation whose statistics prove that such measures are being taken mainly against Roma… ● There is however a Roma culture and memory which is so well ingrained and perpetuated that Roma people are not prevented from expressing it nor is their history to be denied. 4 1) Demands concerning the right to stay Removal measures 1. Stopping the collective issue of removal orders, thereby respecting Article 4 of the Protocol n° 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights which prohibits the collective expulsion of foreigners and the examination of the individual cases of those concerned within the context of a contradictory procedure. 2. Abandonment of the criterion of ―unreasonable burden‖ as justification for the issue of an OQTF and introduction of an interstate financial compensation arrangement or at least a restriction in the application of this criterion in accordance with Community law, which is based on a number of criteria and not only insufficient resources or the sole fact that the person had to resort to the social security system. 3. Application of the concept of ―threat to public order‖ thereby justifying the issue of an APRF2 in accordance with Community law which targets actual and serious threats (acts of terrorism for example). 4. Withdrawal of presumed illegal working as the basis of an APRF. Respect for protection against expulsion which certain foreign nationals enjoy, notably relating to the length of their stay in France and the circulation of a note to administrative jurisdictions pointing out the specific protection for those who are EU citizens. Stopping the detention and expulsion of Roma coming from former-Yugoslavia, particularly Kosovo. 1 Obligation de quitter le territoire français - Obligation to leave French territory 2 APRF - Arrêté préfectoral de reconduite à la frontière -Prefectorial order for a return to the border Collectif National Droits de l’Homme Romeurope c/o FNASAT Gens du voyage – 59, rue de l‘Ourcq – 75019 PARIS – 01-40-35-00-04 / 06-35-52-85-46 www.romeurope.org Requests for permission to stay Juridical analysis of requests for permission to stay made by EU citizens on the basis of common law for foreigners in France when this is more favourable to their situation than the provisions of Community legislation (residence in France since the age of 13 , spouse of a French person or parent of a French child, medical reasons, victims of trafficking…). Asylum Individual and thorough examination of requests for asylum made by people from Roma minorities with a waiver of the rules applicable to safe countries of origin