France begins to send Romas back to Eastern Europe

The controversial expulsion of around 700 Roma to Romania and Bulgaria began today, amid rising criticism of President Nicolas Sarkozy's clampdown on the minority.

PARIS // France begins its controversial expulsion of around 700 Roma to Romania and Bulgaria today, amid rising criticism of President Nicolas Sarkozy's clampdown on the minority. The first 79 Roma who agreed to a "voluntary return procedure" will be put on an afternoon flight to Bucharest, the first such expulsion since Mr Sarkozy last month promised action against Roma, Gypsy and traveller communities.

France intends to fly 132 more to Timisoara, in western Romania, and Bucharest tomorrow and 160 on August 26, with each adult granted ?300 (Dh1,400) and each minor ?100. With unease growing over the roundups using tactics that one member of Mr Sarkozy's ruling party compared with those of Nazi-era France, the interior ministry insisted today that each case had been looked at individually. The Romanian foreign minister, Teodor Baconschi, in an interview with the Romanian service of Radio France International, said he was worried about "the risks of populism and xenophobic reactions in a context of economic crisis".

France's interior minister, Brice Hortefeux, will receive senior Romanian officials including the secretary of state for Roma integration, Valentin Mocanu, next week to discuss the Roma's predicament. About 10,000 Roma from Romania and Bulgaria were returned to their countries last year, but this is the first expulsion since Mr Sarkozy announced a clampdown on foreigners in July.

Mr Baconschi said he hoped that all legal procedures have been duly applied for these "expulsions". The European Union's executive arm has said France must abide by the EU's's freedom of movement rules when it expels Roma living illegally in the country. The European Commission is following the situation "very attentively", a spokesman said. * AFP