Romania Sends Policemen to France over Roma Issue

A Romanian gipsy carries her luggage shortly after arriving from France at the international airport in Bucharest, Romania, 14 September 2010. Photo by EPA/BGNES

Ten Romanian police offers are heading to France on Monday as part of the bilateral police cooperation agreed upon after France started the expulsion of Bulgarian and Romanian Roma.

The ten policemen are going to France for three months, said the Romanian Interior Ministry.

The inclusion of the Romanian police officers in the work of their French colleagues will be accompanied by talks between relevant police officials on Romania's expected accession to the Schengen Agreement.

The meeting that high-ranking French officials had on September 9 with the authorities in Bucharest was intended to end any antagonistic sentiments, and to provide for cooperation on the Roma integration issue.

The administration of French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the government started to crack down on illegal Roma squatters' camps in July-August with the argument that these illegal settlements are a security threat. The subsequent de facto deportation of Bulgarian and Romanian Roma has drawn much international criticism on France.

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