French NGO Urges Deportation Ban for Bulgarian, Romanian Roma

A picture dated 19 August 2010 of Romanian Gypsies arriving at Bucharest Airport, Romania, after having accepted voluntary repatriation from France. EPA/BGNES

The Romeurope National Rights Collective wants France to lift the labor restrictions imposed on Bulgarian and Romanian citizens.

France, along with the UK, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland, Austria, Malta and Luxembourg, refused to open up its labor market to Bulgarian and Romanian nationals in 2011.

In a letter to French PM Jean-Marc Ayrault, the NGO also demands a moratorium on the extradition of Roma EU citizens from the country.

In 2010, France repatriated more than 8,000 Roma to Romania and Bulgaria since the beginning of the year. Its policy came under fire from Brussels when it appeared that police had been ordered to target Roma camps as they went about tackling irregular migration.

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